_ A Cultural History of India Edited by A. L. BASHAM in| \ Ball Earasats OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESSOXFORD ‘YMCA Library Building, Jal Singh Road, New Delhi 130 001 nerd ates est deparnentof te Unie of Osan ‘ctr the Unive sete oeselnce feet cele, Sa edteateny pbs aie Ort New York ‘tne. Avcad Bang Bop Muenos Ae Caleta ‘ape Cheat Durer Sahar DAD Rone Hang Kong se isch ls tumpur asl Melbostee ets Ghy Habel att! ears Seo Poo Singapore spe Tyo Torome Wasew en atte espa in ‘erin hada! (© Oxford University Press 1975 st publishes 1975 ist Indian Impression 1983 reprinted by arrangement with Oxford University Press, Oxford ‘Oxford India Paperbacks 1997 ‘Third impression 1999 All sights reserved. No part of this public stored ina retrieval system, o transmitted, fn slectroni, mechanical, photocopying recording or otherwise, ‘without the prior permission in whiting of Oxforé University Press 1 may be reproduced ISBN 0 19563921 9 323 y “C86 1999 245522 Printed in india at Saurabh Print. 0-Pack, Noida, UP and published by Manzar Khap, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Jal Singh Rood, New Delhi 110 001 ny form or by any means, PREFACE THe Legacy of India, edited by G. T. Garrat, appeared in 1937, Its contri- butors included some of the ablest specialists of the time and several of its fifteen chapters are as valid today as they were at the time of writing. Never- theles, he Second World War, tbe independence of India, and the-ghangd of attitudes since those two momentous events, have fendered some of the chapters quite out of date, Others have become obsolete as the result of the many discoveries made and new theories put forward sines the war, The need for a new edition was clear and Dr. Raghavan Iyer frst drafted ‘out « plan aad approached & number of contributors some firteen years ago. Jn 1968 the Clarendon Press asked me to assume responsibility for bringing the Work to a conclusion, on the basis of the material collected by Dr. Iyer. 1 ageeed to do so, and vas given authority to commission authors and recast the plan of the volume in whatever way 1 might think fit, As is almost inevit- ably the case with large collaborative works, composed by contributors scattered across the world, the task (ook fonger and proved more arduous ‘than I had expected. But itis completed at last, and the result is offered to the reader, not without some misgiving, in the hope that he will accept it as a sincere attempt on the part of the contributors and the editor to explain India’s heritage from the past, and the world’s heritage from Indie. ‘The ‘original Legacy, forall its merits, contained several Incunae. In the attempt to fil these and to produce an even more comprehensive survey, it beeamne in- cteasingly clear that what was emerging could not be contained winder the original ttle, TLwas no longer a ‘Legacy’, and t0, not too immodestly I hope, it was decided to call the book A Cultural History of India While many of the chapters ate the work of senior scholars with well- established international reputations Thave not hesitated to enlist the help of younger and les well-bnovn specialists, where this has seemed advisable. The very fact that contributions have been received from four of the five con tineals (and one contributor now works inthe fifth, Aftiea) is surely evidence in itself of the importance of India in the world today. Four of the contributions to Garratt’s original Legacy have been retained, ‘The venerable Professor Radhakrishoan's sincere and well-writen chapter on Hinduism survives, with some editorial additions, Similarly, with editorial changes, T have retained the chiapter by the late Professor 8. N. Das Gupta, ‘whose monumental survey of Todian Philosophy is still the most authoritative ‘and comprehensive study of the subject. The late Professor HG. Rawliason's sympathetic chapter on India's cuttural influence on the western world re- rains, but itis now divided into two and is brought up to date by a German "ven as itstands, this book contains Iecunse, I should have liked to include achapter on the Gypsies, who are also part ofthe history of Inain; nd the much debated question of Contacts, of which there were cvtlaly some it Pre-Columbie trees, thes ht acd indirect, might also have been considered, More serious fe the abseoce of = chapter onthe Indian dance, one of her greatest contributions tothe world’s culture. a USSU eee wour Preface scholar who has made a special study of the’ subject. The contribution of Martia Briggs on Indian Islamic Architecture is also kept, purged of several pages of discussion of matters which were once controversial, but are now no onger so. Other than these chapters, all the material is new. In my editorial capacity T have made no attempt to force my numerous Jbelpers to fit their contributions to a particular pattern, beyond explaining to them at the outset that I hoped that the book would emphasize the inheritence of modern India from the past, and her many bequests to the world of the present. My main task, except in respect of the ehapters inherited fromm the Garratt Legacy, has been in trying to impose a uaiform system of trenslitera- tion, orthography, and typographical conventions, in occasibnally adcing brief explanatory remarks, and in abridging a few contributions which were efinitely over length 1 was part of my original plan to include chapters on “India since Irde- pendence? and ‘Pakistan since Independence’, which would survey the rain trends in the two countries over the last twentycfive years. But I finally de- cided against this in view ofthe size ofthe volume, and of the fact that many aspects of the contemporary situation were covered in other chapters. Ia the place ofthese two unwritten chapters brief conclusion tries to draw the toany and diverse-threads of this book together. If in this [have allowed mysel" to sake value judgements, some of which may be in disagreement with the state rents of certain contributors, 1 pat my vjews forward with all deference, as those of one who has had close contacts with the region of South Asia-for many years, and bas deepvaffetfon‘for the people ofthat region and for their alte Some readers may be irritated by the numerous diacritic marks to be fond ‘over the letters even of well-known Indian nares, I take fall responsibility for ‘any annoyance this may cans. It has long been ong of my shinor taoks ia life {o encourage the English-speaking public to pronotinee Indian namesand terms with atleast an approximation to accuracy, and the atlention of readers {s drawa to the notes on pronunciation which immediately follow this preface, One of the most difficult problems facing the editor of a work such as this, in thepresent-day context, rests ints title. When the original Legacy was pub: lished the whole of the region of South Asia, with the exception of Nepal, the foreigo affairs of which were controlled by Indiz, and of Ceylon (now offically $1i Lanka), whict ike India was part of the British Empire, was clearly and ‘unequivocally India. The region nov consists of fiescomipletely independent states, of which the Republic of India is unquestionably she largest in size and population. This fact, perhaps understandably, sometimes leads to expies- sions of protest when the word "India’ is used, in certain, contexts, to eever regions beyond India’s present-day frontiers. As an extreme exarople I remenn- ber a student from Kathmanda indignantly declaring that his country had not received. the credit that was its due becasse Gautaoia Buddisa ws invar ably referred to as an Indian when jn fact he had been a Nepalese ‘The en- emic tension betweea India and Pakistan leads to similar protests, on grounds too numerous to mention. L recognize the force of national feeling, andl dono! to give offence to citizens of the other countries of South Asia; but tere inevitably ‘India’ must be understood at times in its broddest historical sease, i Preface vi ve remetnberl in any eta th word Jal owe i Ss: wcities Uae sing eame South a none fog nat de sccoion ve thought aig the county ofthe ia ads tao a Sok ve Sn, The a 0, 4 rams gan, became asap) ofthe Achuemerian Erie of ree ee ae nds ttn becoming Pra Ay eRe tan nes age eo apne Tne rec, vorovng te wore eer reer ond the county though wn Rowe the Teas ale th defrost Tate bain Was the whole ol tnd at fom hein of Alene of Macalon and probably before i cnet om cond tne ney teva of eather oh oh ef ey cad Cover, tom ne Sanit Gang Tis te seg fae i eon nen go ea eit ome by ak hee whe de on as sata el er fnsane yo yea see oEN Spat ssl metean tein vord a8 We hr sin Garg regal at boo : ; Peet Saal wry though ho gzomrapicel knowledge was vy in am eth tem ni tothe ge a a ER Cae este sn The Arb Hind and he Pes a oe te conetaten a alter ae Thasbaopean ween. i eh wri eh tl find Suh A re Munro oes non ete ene ch eo aan ie te in-air stone ae gis IMP ane, eeofostions Ht asada ote i we go beyond the Downes est Indian Repub the petnt nd Fea ay acknowledgements fr much ep and a deer eed ny rs tt mon tank De Raine for collecting the first drafts of several chapters ‘before he ere a Hie fe cae Oe 6g fo Pofeno : Buea Mi Dee oe eet ja tute els fr atg wey comic ih suger Scot am exenent ater Che ve, [hve ete corso geese opeation ran 2) sane eran Tan epealy pte ow fv af tn whe cae MY Fate tat nd ott st not, Aa ther meter of importance think peily of Mr. WG. Archer, Prafesor saa OPTI Leo tne De, Av A, Rr bing i com- i ee sca conln [nave ben ety ed ye {ery competent profesional asistance of Mc Joelya Bergin, Seceaty ol aera a Clana Ma May sero, Dene oa er aan of tides of tpg pool te Feely of Asian Studies of the ae Ne eas peers Aaa erie Clarendon bres for exemplary pans Iau fortusteg my iodgemest eel Canberra, 197vil Preface Postscairr. While this book has beem in the press, several important potiticsl changes have taken place. The secession of East Pakistan, to become the independent state of Bangladesh, occurred shorily before the final typescript ‘was submitted, and note of this has been taken in the text. The change of the fatailiar name Coylon to Sri Lankk came later, and I have not attempted to alter the text of this book accordingly. More recently the Indian state-of Mysore has become Karnataka, and several small hill-states have been de tacked from the former Assam, It would delay the appearence of the book still farther if 1 attempted to bring every reference to these regions of South Asia up to date, and I crave the reader's indulgence for inconsistencies in this respect. ALB. (1974). CONTENTS List of Plates and Maps x Chronological Tables ait Notes on the Pronunctation of Indian Words xvi List of Contributors xix 4, Introduction A. L. Basttane 1 PART ONE: THE ANCIENT HERITAGE the Indus Civilization B.B. Lat in "The Barly Aryans T. Burnow 20 1¥. The Early Drevidians Jom P. Mana ~ (% Afokan India and the Gupta Age Rosita THAPan #8 Vi. Medieval Hindu India A. L, Bastian 3! (Git, Bieduism 5, Rapwanasinan 6 (i) Buddbiom Binxsmy Sanonanaxsuura 3 “GN Jainism A. N, Urapave 100 x Plosepty $.N. Das Guera m xt. Social and Political Thought and Institutions J. DUNCAN'M.:Detingrr 124 si, Selene 1.3.3, Wavren 7 ‘xu. Ancient and Modern Languages T, Burrow 162 XIV, Classipal Literature A. K, WARDER . ” 170 vv, Bony Art and Architecture P , Rawson 191 xv, Mose. taazanor a ART TWO: TE AGH OF AMAL DONNA x The Masi Rang Dynasties 8. A.A, Rta 7 ss, Medieval Hindu Devotionals J, F Jonnes 2665 (Geis Islam in Medieval Todia. 8, A. A. Rizvt 281 aout nade ] xx, Medieval Jndian Literature Kaustnsa KXIPALANt 303x Contents sat, Muslim Architecture in India Manrnt S. Bricos + no xxi, Medieval Indian Miniature Painting PRaMon Canned 326 [PART THREE: CHALLENGE AND RESFONSE—THE COMING OF THE WEST xauv, The Portuguese J.B. Haamison 337 xxv, The Mughals and the British Pencivat Span 38 XXVE. Hindu Religious and Social Reform in British India IT. F.JORDENS 365 xxvii Islamic Reform Movements Aziz Auman 383 ‘xxvut, The Nationalist Movement Huo OWEN 301 xox, Modern Literature Krista KRiPatant 408 PARE FOUR: INDIA AND THE WORLD OUTSIDE xxx, Early Contacts between India and Europe H, G. RAWLINSON 425, xxxt, Indian Influence in Ancient South-Bast Asia AcasTain LAMO 442 Appendix HLHLE, Loors 452 |. Indian Influences on China J, LeRoy Davioson 455 |. India and the Medieval Islamic World 8. A. A, Rizvt a6 , Yndia and the Modern West Fricpaicit Witamsist AND HG. Rawuinson 470 xxv. Conclusion A, L. BASHAM 487 Books for Further Reading sor Index 519 LIST OF PLATES Siva Daksinamarti (Siva as Teaches), South side of East Gopura, 6a, 6. 15. 16. 1, Cidambacam, Tamilntdu, ¢. 4.0. 1200.5. C, Harle frontisplece av END Kalibangan: steatite seals (two upper rows) and clay sealings (bot- om row), Archaeological Survey of India Lothal: cast of obverse and reverse of a seel of ‘Persian-Gull” style, Archaeological Survey of India ‘Surkotada: general view of the citadel, with enteance:ramp in the middle distance on the right, Archaeological Survey of India Surkotadd: entrance to the citadel, with ramp, staircase, and guardrooms(). Archaeological Survey of India Indo-Greek and Persian coins, From H, G. Rawlinson, Tnter- course between India and the West, Cambridge University Press Bronze statuette of Harpocrates from Taxila, From the Cambrldge History of India, vol. + Greek intaglio gems from North-West India, ibid. ‘North Indian Astrolabe, brass. ? r8th century. Obverse. Museum of History of Seience, Oxford North Indian Astrolabe, brass. ? rth century. Reverse, Musewn of History of Science, Oxford Samra yantea, Delhi, Minter Mother Goddess, moulded terracotta plaque, Tamluk (near Cel- cutta). e, 18 century B.c. Ashmolean Musewn, Oxford ‘Yaksa, stone. Besnagar, now in Vidise Museum, c. rst century 8. J.C. Harle Seated Buddha, sandstone, Si Hearle Vignu in his Boar incarnation, sandstone. Udayagii Pradesh), Early sth century A, J. C, Harle Sivilaya-Malegiti (a Siva temple), Bhddmi (Mysore Stats) Fest half of 7th century A.b. J. C. Harle Head of Siva from an Ekamukbalingam, spotted red sandstone, Mathura. 4th-sth century A.D. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Siva Nataraja (Siva as Lord of the Danes), bronze, From Tamil- nadu, probably Pudukottai, Thanjavar region, Chola Dynasty. rot century A.D, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Bodhisattva, Gandhéra (Graeco-Buddhist), and-sth eentury 4.0. Archaeological Survey of India nith, Late sth century AD. J. C. (Madhyaai List of Plates and Maps CHRONOLOGY 38, Kali: interior of chaitya cave, e, 150 2.¢. India Office Fouiricat-econonie eeeTuRsc a6] evens amon 19, Nasik: sun-window and horseshoe-areh, e, 150 2.¢. = no Saure 20. Bow-harps and flutes, Amaravait.c. 4.0, 200. British Museum ay ents 21, Vini in the hands of Sarasvatl.e, A.D, 900 British Museum Ei 22, Ajmer: Great Mosque. c. 1209. Indian Museum, Calcutta oe ead 23, Delhi: Qutb Minder, a.p. 1232. Indian Museum, Caleutta ene seat eh 24, Delhi: Tomb of Humiyan, C.P, Bureau, Judion State Rathvays ae pie eta! Pe 25, Fatdhpur-Siket: the Buland Danwaza, av, 1575, From S.-M. | a eee Eawardes and H. £. 0. Garrett. Mugiel Pale India (Oxford e| a Unboersity Press) i Apaatin Mant {asco 26, Agra: the Taj Mahal, A.D. 1632. India Office ee eee nncaes eee 27, The Dying Tnayat Khan, miniature painting. Early 7th century, ee Bodleian Library Oxford 28 Asvarl Ragini (a musical mode personified), from the Laud 2 Régamiala, Eacly 17th century. Bodlelan Library, Oxford 29. Plaque with Siva and Parvati, carved ivory. From South India c. vlna war nyepeereaonntun [ROO | A. 1700. Victoria and Albert Museum, London vole trase ta es to 30. Girdle (paika), stencilled and painted cotton. Rajasthan. Late 17th aeol?| fecha Bena deggie Krk | anges i or early 18th century. Victoria and Albert Museum, Loudon eal eggagnnict few 31. Seated Buddha, git bronze. China. Former Chao Dynasty. Dated AD. 338. Avery Brundage Collection vk] spss nate om sett fo 32. Standing Kuan-Vin, gilt bronze, Ching. Mid-T’ang Dynasty. Late F| [SRE con ‘reentry A.D. Avery Brundage Collection # E Fee \. LIST OF MAPS ' et ance ta eas ras ATED pias eas, “agate te Le 1, Physical Features of India eee eee 11, Asoka's Empize (250 3.0.) i cae 1, The Gupta Empire at the Close of the Fourth Century see | veneer 7 1N, Indie at the Close of the Ninth Century eee v. India in 1236 sage tem vi. The Mughal Empire at the Death of Akbar (1605) Se on bts vl. The Mughal Empire at the end of the Seventeenth Century vo, | is hs ‘vin. The Portuguese Possessions in the Hast and the Route to India # ea nese “Saga ER nape 2x, India at the Close of Dalhouste's Administration i Is Digger onan x, India in 1939 a B aciaeaat Iss 24, Trade Routes from Inia to The Levant ’ e| heseettuaer- | dagan | ktbaaeeFouttient-eoveme ——_T sagguaasg | evens aman ou aa Saenger an aimee nan EB Blouin ecceastein | | Spates F ; LE Sates, E| Ee 3 ke Hl Pa SE Fc utererconaan | A e Fi ewer cn | ' E EI os E i ea & | sears ier eac é BES soni Ee fener : povesssnaen RE one clearer E 0 bathe ahs 4 ee Elan Srasiaass "| ett sabetrpane 3 | amenities PabE re owen H ' ie x ae Sein et Sao * |e nn Nast” sant Wil Po examantd tes gg Monotot “lien hsmNOTES ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF INDIAN WORDS "ty Indi language has complex phonetic sytem and contis phonemes the Indian nr are completly deen Onlyaerlong pracite earth ee be tained to reognie thet dftrencs, or the woed onpeee eee them secratly. The sexpso Indn nggesreprodes tan reer ne they can only be exrssed in roman sonpt by means Fauna tee marks below or above the ters, ltisassume tet moto tierendor ree ook will not be aidenis of Indian languages and hersiore a sipeeied systam of (ansiteaton kas beon uses whi yl ge some ee che Sypiosinate wound ‘Words in lassie enguages ave tanslterated according tothe sinplifed system mentioned above, Placenames in general flog the eee ae afl spelings of he governments ofthe counties of Soul Aer in Bartholomew's Word ‘tev Map, Ine Patiams at Chaba en Proper names of nineteeathy and twenttiveetury ladans are oren ie he spalngyhic they themes favoured, ining he homoaele tee "Tagore, which shouldbe Thur, with te sires onthe fee aplable Die ext mais have ben pled ove fhe lng vows ins tne eden tive some idea of the correct pronunciation Exceptions are site cnae fase of ory ev Angled word ke Celetonnd Ronin from Sasi the fll sytem of cars hasbeen ice, We Un bene ok those who know something of the language. Only four ltrs th dase marke ate normaly wed and & The first three distinguish long from short vowels. In most Indien languages ¢ and O ae alvay long, and therefore do no ead dace vowsts 4 shorts pronounce lke un ‘hu’, never like ain ‘ba. Bengt speakers usually pronouace itlke short ows inet" long, a in ea, og sperms the vowel in ‘ame’, butcloter othe long in Feneh or 1a in pin’ The word Sik, ncdentlly should sound approxisaely like Baglih sick’ The pronunciation like “seek sem fo have ean doped by ‘one Baglismen in Indi fortis very reason, in order to aval cepreing overtones in the name of a tough, vigorous peor, Tasin ‘machine’ 0, approximately an *s0", Closer to longo in French or Geaman wras in bull never sin “bu Pajdby however, am Anglced spel Ing, and is more accurately wtitten ‘Panjab’, In the case of this word we have deviated from our rule abou Uslog the seeped speling, im order fo ave the Notes on the Pronunciation of Indian Words xvii pronunciation ‘Poonjab’, which one sometimes hears from speakers Who are doing their best to be correct. The first syllable is like the English ‘pun’,) as in ‘rul (ata yin ‘my’, ‘au a3 ov in ‘how’. consonants Most of the consonants are pronounced roughly as isi Bagish, buts care should be taken ofthe aspirated consonants ki, gi, ch, J, th, dh, ph, and ‘nh, These are exacly like their unaspirated counterpart, ky g, hs 1, hp, and », but with a stronger emission of breath, English speakers often espirate ‘hete letters when they bogin a word or sylable. Thus the English ‘cake’, scgording to Indian phonetics, might appear as hel&. The distinction between the two sounds is immediately obvious to the Indien (except perhaps if his mother tongue is Tamil), but to the English speaker they are vctually alike In a native Indian word, this never pronounced as in ‘thing’, ph aever as in “phial” (except by some Bengal speakers). The letters pronounced as in the English “joke, never asin Preach or German. ‘The liter Sis pronounced approximately as sh in ‘sheet’ The reader will find both Sand si used in spelling Yadian words in this book; this not de to carelessness. The two represent two separate letters in Tndian seripts, which are nowadays pronounced alike, or almost alike, by most Indians, though ‘onvs the distinction was much more definite, ‘The letter v varies Irom region to region between the sounds of English ‘v" and ‘wy’, Beogilis and some other Indians regulely pronounce it as "The biggest diicuty of the Indian phonetic system—the distinction between the retroflex consonants, ff, di, and y, end the dental, ft, dy dh, and n—is too specialized for the ordinary reader who does not intend t0 earn an Indian language, and is not indicated in the system used here ‘Urdd fas imported several sounds from Arabic and Persian, Many speakers ‘are inlined to pronounce words in these laniguages according to the Indian phonetic system, but educated Muslims atempt to pronounce them corzectly, For example gis a very deep k sound pronouaced with the throat in the posi. tion of swallowing, The ‘rough breathing’ indicated by “is a similar deep swallow associated with a vowel, zther like the “glottal stop" which replaces ¢ in the broad Cockney pronunciation of ‘bottle’. In Persian and Arabic loan- words hi is pronounced as chin Scots or German ‘lock; gh isthe same, but voiced, lke the French r. The English sounds of thin ‘worth’ and "worthy" occur in Arabic, and some speakers attempt them, but in Tndia and Pakistan they are usually pronounced as English sand z, even by the edueated, sree ‘The amount of stress placed on any one syllable of a word varies with ifferent speakers. With some, especially in the south, evory syllable of word has almost the same value, while others make 4 definite stress. In classical Indian languages (Sanskrit, Pali, and the Prakrits) the stress is fon the last prosodically long syllable of @ word, other tha the final syllable. A prosodically long syllable is one containing a long vowel or diphthong (4, ¢,xi Notes on the Pronunciation of Indian Words 7, 0, al, au) oF a short vowel followed by two consonants, Thus Himalaya is stressed on the second syllable, not on the third. The Situation is more complicated in the modern languages because the short final -a, with which many Sanskrit words terminate, is no longer pro- nounced in most contexts, end is not usually written in transliteration. Thus Sanskrit vihdra ‘monastery’, with the stress on the second syllable, becomes the modern state of Bihar, with the stress on the last. Hence no simple rule can be given for the stress of words in modern languages, including Persian ‘and Arabic loau-words, but in necrly ull cages it is on a. prosodically long syllable if the word contains one. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Ahmad, Azis D.Lit(Lond). Professor of Islamic Studies, University of ‘Toronto, Canad Bashers, A. L,, D.Lit(Lond.), HouD.Lit(Kuruksbetta), RSA, RAAEA. Professor of Asian Civilizations, Australian National University, Can. berra, Australi. Figs, Martin S. (1882 _), FLR.LB.A. Formerly Lectarer, London Unie ‘vetsity School of Architecture Burrow, T., M, A. Ph-D(Cantab.), B.A. Boden Professor of Sanskrit nd Fellow of Baliol College, Oxford, UK, ‘Chandra, Pramod, Ph.D. Profesor in the Departments of Art and of South ‘Asian Languages and Civilization, University of Chicago, US.A. Das Gupta, §.N. (1885-1952), M.A., D.Lilt(Cantab), Hon D.Litt(Rome). Formetly Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cambridge, and Profes- tor of Mental and Moral Science, University of Caleuta, Indi Davidson, J, LeRoy, Ph.D,(Yale), Professor (and Chairman) of the Depart. rent of Art, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S. Derrett, J. Duncan M,, D.C.L{Oxon,), LLD., Ph.D.(Lond), Professor of Oriental Laws inthe University of London, Lecturer in Hindu Lawin the Inns of Court Schoo! of Law, London. Hastison, J. B., M.A,(Cantab). Reader in the History of South Asia in the University of London, Jaitazbhoy, No, BA.(Wash.). Associate Professor of Asian Studies, Univer- sity of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Jordens, J. T. F, LiePbilos., Ph-D(Louvsin). Reader i South Asian Civil zation, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Kripalani, Krishna, B.A.(Bombay), Bar-at-Law (Lincoln's Tn, London) Formerly Seorctaty, Sihitye Akademi (National Academy of Letters), ‘Now Delhi, India, Lal, B. B., M.A. Professor of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Atchaeo- ogy, Jvait University, Gwalior, M.P., India, Formerly Ditector-General, Archaeological Department, Government of India, New Delhi, India, Lamb, Alastair, Ph.D.(Cantab,). Formerly Professor of History, University of Ghia. Meltod, Hew, M.A.(NZ), PhD (Lond). Associate Professor of History, ‘University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, Mars, John, Ph.D (Lond). Lecturer in Tamail and Indian Musio, School of Oriental and Aftican Studies, University of London, ‘Owen, Hugh, Ph.D.(ANU). Lecturer in History, University of Western Ause tralia, Pert, Australia, Raghakrishuan, Sarvepalli (1888-}, O.M., FBA., D.Litt, LLD, D.C.L. Numerous honours and honorary degrees. Formerly Professor ofXx List of Contributors Philosophy, University of Calcutta, Professor of Bastern Religions, University of Oxford, Vice-Chancellor, Banares Hindu University. 1962~ 1967, President of the Republic of India, Rawlinson, H. G. (1880-1957), CLE, M.A.(Cantab). Formerly Principal, Devean College, Poona Rawson, Philip, M:A.(Lond,). Curator, Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, University of Durham, U.K, ‘Rizvi, S.A. A., Mun PhD., D.Litt(Agre), F.AGHA, Reader ia South Asian Civitiration, Australian National Univesity, Canberra, Austalia Sangharakshite, Bhikshu Spear, T. G. Percival, O.B.E., M.A., Ph.D,(Cantab,), Fellow of Selwyn Cole lege, Catnbridge. Formerly Hon, Reader in History, Delhi University, and University Lecturer in History, University of Cambridge, UK. ‘Thapar, Romila, Ph.D.(Lond,). Professor of Historical Studies and Chairman of the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Ind Upadbye, A. N., M.A. D.Litt, Professor of Jainology and Prakrit, Univer: sity oF Mysore, India, Warder, A. K., Ph.D.(Lond). Professor of Sanskrit and Indi University of Toronto, Canada, Wilhelm, Friedrich, DPhil, Professor of Indology and University of Munich, West Germany. Wintet, HL J.J., PhD,, D.Se(Lond). Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Exeter, UK. CHAPTER I Introduction by A. L. Basan ‘Turns are four main eradies of civilization, from which elements of culture hhave spread to other parts of the world. These are, moving from cast to west, China, the Indian subcontinent, the ‘Fertile Crescent’, and the Mediter- ranean, especielly Greece end Italy, Of these four arets India deserves a larger share of the credit than she is usually given, because, on a minimal asiessmeni, she has deeply affected the religious life of most Of Asia and bas provided very important elements in the culture of the whole of South-East Asia, as well as extending her influence, directly and indirectly, to other parts of the world, It has been commonly believed in the West that before the impact of European learning, science, and technology ‘the Fast" changed little if at all over many centuries, The ‘wisdom of the Fast’, unchanging over the millen- nia, it was thought, preserved eternal verities which Western civilization had ‘almost forgotten, On the other hand ‘the East’ was not ready to enter into the rough and tumble of the modern world without the guidance for an indefinite perlod of more developed Western countries. ‘These ideas were no doubt held in good faith by many wellinformed people of earlier generations, and there may have been a grain of truth in them from the point of view of the nineteenth century. But there is no reason to believe that the rat of change in India in earlier times was tay slower than that of other parts of the world. It was only from the sixteenth century on- wards, when a combination of many factors led to increasingly rapid techno- logical and scientific advances in Europe, that the myth of the changelessness of Asia began to appear. Tn fact Indie as always been steadily changing. The civilization of the Guptas was different from that of the Mauryas, and that of medieval times ‘was different again, The Muslims altered conditions considerably, and the high flowering of Indian Muslim civilization under the four great Mughals brought yet more changes, The religious life of India, forall her ‘ancient wisdom’, has changed greatly over the centuries. Between the time of the carly Greek philosophers and thet of St. Thomas Aquinas, Buddhism developed into a ‘great religious movement ia India, changed if¢ outlook almost completely, declined, and finally sank back into the Hinduism from which it had emerged, but only after Buddhist missionaries had spread their message throughout half of Asia, The Athenian Acropolis was at least 500 years old before the frst surviving stone Hindu temple was built, Some of the most popular gods, of Hinduism, for instance, GaneSa and Hanuman, até not attested wntil well after the time of Christ. Certain other features of Hitdduism also, for insiance the cult of the divine Rama and the complex and dificult system of physical {raining known as hatha yoga, are centuries Iter than Christianity,2 Iniroduction Of Gipamest, nd ret tings sen a Ramee I oc Hamat were ot rected them from oblivion, and if they are now national heroes, remembered chieftains and the great battles fought by them at about the same time. It ree The pre-Vedie Harappa culture bequeathed to later times sacred aninials and, less certainly, other aspects of Indian culture. From the Vedic Aryans horse. Later Vedic times (c. 1006-600 0.c.) brought the passion for specula- kingdoms out of tribal chieftainships. ” oe Political developments over the preceding period led to the first great mpi of India, that ofthe Mauiyas, when forthe Bs ime mos of the sub= continent was united under a single government. This period (c. 320-1 +) iat ae Kautilyay he reputed author of the famous Arthasdsira. From Introduction 3 (c. 272-232 v.c) Buddhism increased its influence, and was taken to Ceylon. "The 500 years between the Mauryas and the Guptas (c. 184 3.6.~A.D. 320) saw tremendous developments in Indian civilization, partly due to fresh in= fluences brought in by various invaders and traders, and partly the result of internal developments. New forms of devotional religion emerged, centring round the gods Vishnu and Siva, and these led to the composition of the Bhogaved Gita, now the most influential text of Hinduism. Buddhism de- veloped a theology, the Mahdydna, which was carried to China. Schools of Jaw appeared, cositying in written form earlier traditions, The two great epicé of India, the Mahdbhdraca and the Rdndyana, were edited in something like their prevent form, Courtly literature began developing out of vanished proto~ rama, canging from the heroic to the sentimental, and verse, wonderful ia its polish’ and ingenuity yet often filled with deep and sincere feoling. Logically reasoned philosophical schools emerged, as distinet from the older religious teachers, most of whose arguments were analogical. Contact with South-East Asia became closer with the spread of trade, and that region begen Co adopt many features of the religion and culture of India, These are only @ few of the many innovations of this, perhaps the most formative period of Indian history before the nineteenth ceotury. ‘The period from the rise of the Guptas to the death of Harshavardhana (320-647) can truly be called the classical period of Indian civilization. In this, age the grestest sculpture of ancient India was produced, and the finest ature written, in the poems and plays of Kalidasa. This Was the time of the best surviving ancient Indian mural painting, typified by Ajanta. Know- ledge grew also in this period, India’s most important practical contribution to the world, the system of place notation of numerals, with nine digits and a zero, was known by A.D. 509, and led to the great development of Indian ‘mathematics and astronomy. The recording of ancient legends and traditions in the Purdnas began. The Mother Goddess, after centuries of neglect, became ‘an important object of worship again, Stone-built temples appeared through- cout the land: Bewveen the death of Harshavardhana and the coming of Islam (647~ 6, 1206) the eestatie devotional religion (Phakt), associated with the singing, of hymns in the common tongue, appeared in Tamilnadu, later to spread all lover the subcontinent, ‘Temples became larger and grander, with spi towers, The system of hatha yoga was developed, and tantrism, with its sacramentalization of sex, spread in both Hinduism and Buddhism, Tn Sankara and Raménuja Hindu religious philosophy saw its greatest teachers. Some of the finest schools of bronze-casting in the world appeared in Bengal and Tamilnddu. The former region also developed a fine school of miniature painting. ‘With the coming of Islam fresh cultural influences made themselves felt. Tho sultanate period (1192-1526) saw the introduction of new styles of archi tecture, bringing the Gome and arch, New schools of miniature painting, both Muslim and Hindu, emerged. Soft teachers disseminated the doctrines of Islam and helped to make the religious climate of northern India favourable to the spread of popular devotional Hinduism from the south. Paper was in troduced, slowly replacing the traditional Indian writing materials—palm-leat4 Introduction and birch-bark, ‘The Urd language began to appear as the lingua franca of northern Tadia, and poets began to compote in the everydaysianguages instead of classical Sanskrit, : 1 The great days of the Mughal Empire (1526-1707) witnessed the perfection oftthe schools of Muslim architecture and miniature painting, with the pro- | duction of such splendid buildings as the Taj Mabal at Agri. Cannon and smaller fize-arms began to be used in warfare, Eucopesns esiablished trading stations at various ports, and through them, especially the Portuguese, new ‘crops were introduced into Indis, among them the potato, tobacco, the pine- "apple, and, surprisingly, the spice which nowadays is commonly thought typical of Indie, the chilli pepper. The Sikh religion was born just as this period began, as a surall devotional sect, and at about the time when the ‘period concluded it was reborn as a martial brotherbood, to play an important part in the confused politica life ofthe following century. + The eighteenth ceatury saw the break-up of the Mughal Empire and the steady expansion of the power of the British East India Company. It was @ time of general eutural decline in India, but the genius ofthe and was still at. work. The Unda language, little used hitherto aé a medium of literary expres- sion, became the vehicle of great poetry at the decadent couris of Delhi and Lucknow; while in the Himilayan foot-hills, at the end of the century atthe petty courts of local mabrajas, by some unexplainable miracle, these worked painters who produced works of unprecedented beauty end sensitivity. With the nineteenth century the subcontinent was exposed to the full force of ‘Western influence, and innovations ate too numerous to list, This cursory survey of the history of cultural change in India is sufficient in itself to show that, as long as civilization has existed there, the country has never been stagnant, but hes steadily developed through the ages, India as enjoyed over 4,000 years of civilization, and every period of her history has Teft something to the present day. ‘As well as‘this great legacy of ihe human past, the people of the subcon- finent have another inheritance from Nature itsel—the land aid its climate. We cannot understand South Asia without knowing something about what its people have received from the primeval forces which shaped the sucface of ‘the earth millions of years before man existed, Jn this sense perhaps India's ‘most important inheritance isthe great chain of the Himilayas, without which the land would be little mére than & desert, ‘As the plateau of Central Asia grows warmer in the spring, the warm sit rises and winds bearing heavy masses of cloud are attracted towards the high tableland from the Indian. Ocean. The movement of the clouds is interrupted by the mountains, and they shed their burden of rain upon the parched, over- heated land. The monsoon, beginning in June, lasts for about three months, and brings water for the whole yest, Except along the coast and ina few other ly favoured areas, there is little or no rain in other seasons, and thys the life of almost the whole subcontinent depends on the monsoon. ‘The conservation and just sharing out of the available water among the cultivators is a very important factor inthe life of lida It has been one of the Ina concerns of Indian governments for ove 2500 years and indeed the high civilization which is discussed in the pages of this book has depended, Introduction 3 ‘ad still largely depends, on irrigation, promoted and supervised by govern- ment, for its very existence, In the past, whenever the rains lave been inade- ‘guste, there has been famine; whenever a local goverament has lost grip and become ineflectve, irigation hes been neglected, dams have broken, canals have been choked with mud and weed, and great hardship has resulted. Thus villagers have lenent to co-operste independently of thei rules, by forming ‘heir own village goverament, under a commnittes of locally respected leaders, the panchayat, to cere for matters of common concern such as irigation, and to settle disputes as far as possible outside the royal courts. On a large scale the climate has perhaps encouraged autocracy, but at the local level it has necessitated government by discussion, : Let it not be thought that the South Asian climate is one which encourages idleness or quietism. There ate certainly periods in the agricultural year when litle work can bo done in the fields, but in a different way, in most parts of the subcontinent, the challenge of nature is just as serious as it is in northern Burope or America, Te driest part ofthe year is also the hottest, in April and ‘May, and its pechaps just as difficult to sustain life in such conditions as itis in the cold northera winter. The rainy season brings problems of another kind—almost constant heavy rain, floods destroying thousands of lives, rivers changing their courses, epidemics, and stinging insects, some of which carry the germs of such diseases as malaria and elephantiasis, In the winter season, moreover, though tho days are mild and sunny, the nights may be very cold, especially in Pakistan and the western part of the Ganga basin. In such times, ‘when the midnight temperature may be below freezing-point or only a little above it, deaths from exposure still occur. Only in the tropical coastal areas of the peninsula would elimatic conditions permit the survival of a considerable population without much herd work and foresight, sustained by coconuts, bananas, and the abundant fish of the Indian Ocean; and in these favoured ‘reas the population passed the limit at which such a way of life was possible "The abundant bouny of opis and subtropical nature hasbeen qualified by extreme heat, extreme rainfall, and extreme dryness i different parts of the yeat. In fact the climate of thé subcontinent tends to extremes, and possibly this too has influenced the Indian character and attitude to life, because, though one of the greatest of India's teachers counselled ‘the Middle Way’, succeeding generations have not always taken this course, and the extremes of rigorous asceticism and abandoned luxury have often gone hand in hand, South of the Himalayas lie the great plains of the subcontinent, the centres from which civilization expanded in ancient timesi Composed of deep silt carried down by the rivers Indus (Sind, Sindhu) arid Ganga (Ganges) these plains are naturally very fertile, bt for centuries they have supported a dense population, whose peasants used the most easly avtilable form of manure, cow-dung, as fuel. Hence the fertility ofthe plains destined, until by the end of the lat century many areas hed reached a rock bottom of productivity, from ‘hich they have begun to emerge only recently, with the introduction of arti- ficial fertilizers and the spread of knowledge of better agricultural methods. In ancient days, however, the fertility and the healthy wellfed peasantry of Yadia6 Introduction were noticed by foreign travellers from the Greek Megasthenes (c. 300 3.c.) onwards. South of the Gang sre thé Vindhya Mountains and the long and beautiful River Narmada, dividing the north from the plateau region of Maharashtra, generally called the Decean (from Sanskrit dashing, ‘south’, The region less naturally fertile than the great plains, has been for at east 2,000 years the home of tough martial peasants whe, whenever energetic leadership appeared to consolidate ther clans, would take advantage ofthe politcal weekness of their neighbours to raid the wealthier lends to the north, south-east, and south. ‘The Deccan plateau becomes steadily tess rugged and more fertile as oue proceeds south and south-east. Along the eastern littoral of the peninsula are fertile riverine plains, the most importuat historicelly being that of Tamilinid, reaching from Madras to Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari, theextremesouthert tip of India). Here, over 2,000 years ago, the Tamil people developed a fairly advanced civilization independently of the Aryan north; this region has throughout its history maintained a consciousness of its differenezs from the north, and has chetished its own language, while remaining part of the waole Indian cultural area; there may be an analogy between the Tamil altitude to the northern Aryans and that of the Welsh to the English, with the difference hat, while many Welshmen have English as their mother tonguc, few if any Tamils have & mother tongue other than Tamil. ‘Yet another inheritance of India from the distant past is her people. De- spite the difficult mountain passes and the wide seas barring access to India, people have been finding their way there fcom the days ofthe Old Stone Age, ‘when small hordes of primitive men drifted into the subcontinent. These are probably the ancestors of one of India's three main racial types—the Prato- Australoid, 0 called because ofthe resemblance fo the Australian Aborigines, Jn India the most pure Proto-Avstraloid typo is to be found among the tribal peoples of the wilder parts of the peninsula, but Proto-Australoid features can be traced almost everywhere inthe subcontinent, especially among people of low caste, The ideal type is short, dark-skinned, broad-nosed, and large mouthed, ‘The next main stratum.in the population of India is the Palaco-Mediter- ranean, often loosely called Dravidian, a word not now favoured by anthro pologists, These people seem to have come to south Asia from the west, not very long before the dawn of civilization in the Indus valley, and they may have contributed to the foundation of the Harappa culture, Graceful and slender, with well-chiseled features and aquiline noses, the ideal type is parti= ularly to be found among the better-class speakers of Dravidian languages, but italso occurs everywhere in the subcontinent. ‘Then, in the second millennium 3.c., came the Aryans, speakers ofan Indo- European language which Was tho cousin of those of clessieal Europe. Some hhave suggested that these people catne in two or more waves, the eater in- vaders being round-headed (brachyeephalic) people of the type called Alpine or Armenoid, and the later long-headed folk, typieal Caucasoids, similar in build to northern Europeauis. Long before they entered Indja the people who called themselves Aryans had intermixed with other peoples, and theit adveat meant a severe cultural decline, which lasted for many centuries. Oly whea Introduction 7 Aryan culture was fertilized by the indigenous calture did it begin to advance, te form the classical civilization of India. There ore good arguments for the View that in the finished product non-Aryan elements are more numerous than Aryan, Nowadays the Caucasoid type is chiefly to be found in Pakistan, Kashmir, and the Panjab, but even here one rarely meets pure or nearly pure specimens, As one proceeds east and south the: typé becomes progressively ‘These three, the Proto-Australoid, the Palaeo-Mediterranean, and the Caucasoid or fado-European, are the most strongly represented racial types among the jobabitants of India; but they are by no meaas tho only ones. ‘Almost every race of Central Asia found its way 0 India, Turks provided the ruling families in much of what is now Pakistan long before the coming of the Maslims, who were also Turks, Mongolians of various races have been enter- ing India over the Himalayan and north-eastern passes since long before history. The Mustim ruling classes imported numerous African slaves, who hhave long since merged with the general population. Persian and ‘Arab traders settled along the west coast from before the Christian era, Some tnerried Indian women, and the descendants have become indistinguishable fom the rest of the population. Others, such as the small but vigorous Pars! community, have kept thelr stock pure. The various Furopean traders and conqueroré have left their mark also. Along the west coast of India and Ceylon an appreciable quantity of Portuguese blood circulates inthe veins of the general population, while elsewhere in India the so-called Anglo-Indian commuity is the result of many marriages and liaisons between Buropean (aot only British coldiers and traders and Indian women. : “Thus, in reading these chapters, we must remember also India’s enduring inheritance of climate, land, and people, the basis on which ber high civilizae tion has been built, and which will zemaia, mote of less unchanging, to condic tion tho lives of Ber people in all their triumphs and vicsstudes in fature centuries.“parr one THE ANCIENT HERITAGECHAPTER I The Indus Civilization by B. B. Lau More than 4,000 years ago there flourished in the north-western patts of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent a civilization which, deriving its name from the sain river of the region, is known as the Indus civilization. In factyhowever, 5 extended far beyond ie limits of that valley—from Sutkagen-dor, on the sea-board of south Ballchistén, in the west to Alamglrpur, in the upper Gangé-Yamuna dod in Utiar Pradesh, in the east; and from Ropar, almost impinging upon the sub-Himdlayan foot-hill, in the north to Bhagatcév, on the estuary of the Kim, a small river between the Narmada and Tapti, in the south. In other words from west to east the Indus civilization covered am area of 1,609 kilometres, and from north to south of 1,109 kilometres, and it will not be surprising if future discoveries widen the horizons still further, This is an area much greater then that occupied jointly by the contemporary civiliza- tions of Egypt and Mesopotamia, And throughout the region a notably high standard of living was reached which is reflected in almost every walk of life. ‘The frst thing that strikes a visitor to an Indus site—be it Harappa or Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan or Kalibangen, Lothal, or Surkotada in India—is the town-planning, One finds the streets and janes iaid out nccording.to a set plan: the main streets running from north to south and the eross-streets and lanes running, at right angles to them. At Kilibangan, among tho north— south streets there was a principal one, 7-20 metres wide, while the other north-south streets were three-quarters of its width. The cross-streets and Innes Were, once again, half or a quarter of the width of the narrower streets from north to south. Such typical end minutely planned residential areas, often called the ‘lower towas", were themselves only a part of the entire seltiement complex. For at Harappa, Mobenjo-daro, Kalibengen, and Surkotada, there was a ‘citadel’, smallee in area than the ‘lower town’ and invariably located to the west of it. At Lothal, although no ‘citadel” as such has been found, a similar conception seems to have existed, for the more ime portant structufes rested in a group on a high mud-briek plsiform. In marked contrast might be cited the contemporary example of Ur in Mesopotamia, where there Was no rigorous planning of tis king, the main stcet wandering and corving as it wished. Both at Harappé-and Mohenjo-daro the houses were made of kiln-burnt bricks. At Kilibangan and Lothal too, elthough mud bricks were used for ‘most of the residentiel houses, kiln-burnt bricks in lacge quantities were used for drains, wells, and bathing-platforms, and in particular for the dockyard at the lalter site (below, p. 14). Such bricks were race in contemporary Mesopotamia or Egypt. At Mohenjo-diro and Kalibangan, were large areas have been excavated, an average house consisted of a courtyard aroundra The Indus Civilization \hich were situated four to six living-rooms, besides a bathroom and a Kitchen, Larger houses,"however, might have up to thirty rooms, «nd the presence ofs Of fresh water, most of the houses had their own wels, and in addition, there Were public wells Sullage-water was discharged through well-covered street. drains matle of kiin-burnt bricks. At intervals they were provided with mans holes for clearance. The citadel at Mokenjo-diro contained many imposing buildings, all made ‘oF kiln-burnt bricks: forexample, the reat bath, the college, the granary, and the assembly ball, In the bath the actual tank measured 12 metres in Jength (north to south), 7 metres in width, and 2-5 metres in depth. It was approached by two staircases, one each on the northern and southern sides, ‘The loor and side-walls of the tenk were rendered watertight by the use ef gypsum in the mortar, while the side-walls were fusther bucked by « damp- Proof course of bitumen, Around the tank ran a pillaed veranda from which there was access to a serice of what might be called ‘dressing-rooms'. The tank was fed with water from a large well situated in the complex, while, for the discharge of uéed water, there was a corbelled drain in the south-west comer ‘Whether the bath had a purely secular use or hed a religious fumtion as wel is very dificult to say. However, it has been surmised that beneath the sttpa of the Kushina period, situated hardly fifly metres to the east of the \ bath, there may be the remains of a temple. And this is not improbable, for a kind of worship-place fas indeed been identified within the citadel at Kali- bangan, closely associated with a well and bathing-platforms (below, p. 14). {Between the bath and the sfapa le the remains of a building 83 metres long ‘and 24 metres wide, with a large number of rooms on theee sides of a Lo-mette square courtyard. The presence of staircases suggests the possibility of there thaving been some more rooms, besides terraces, on the first floor. From the ‘general disposition of the building, the excavator was inclined to regard it 2s the residence of ‘the high priest’ or of a ‘college of priests’. Juxtaposed to the south-western wall of the bath was a granary covering an overall area of $5 by 37 metres. It consisted of a podium formed by 27 blocks of solid brickwork, arranged in three rows of nine each, and separated one from the other'by passages about a metre wide. The latter were evidently pro ded for the cieulation of air underneath the timbered floor of the storage hall that stood above the podium, Built on to the northern side ofthe podium ‘was a platform, with a ramp going down to ground level outside, To this, one can imagine, were brought wagons full of wheat and-barley (below, p. 13) for unloading. ‘There are many other buildings within the citadel, but one is particularly striking. Though not completely excavated, itcovers an area of over 750 square ‘metres, t has twenty massive piers of kiln-burnt bricks arranged in four rows of five each, with traces of corresponding pilasters atthe ends. Ths there are six aisles from nozth to south and at least five from west to east, the farther plan on theeast being incomplete, The building was very probably an assembly hall, which would fit the general context of other specialized buildings in the citadel. eases in many of them indicates a second storey, For the supply » The Indus Chvilization 3 Hoarappi was segarded es avother ‘capital’ of the ‘Indus Empire’ Here hardly any excavation has been done in the ‘lower ety” to the east of the ‘citadel’. Infact, even within the citadel, the sporadic diggings have not helped very much to produce a coherent picture, Of the enclosing wall, however, many details ate available. A section cut aaxoss it at about the middle of the ‘western side showed chat it was built of mud bricks, externally evetted with kila-bucat bricks, The mud-brick wall messured over 13 metres in width at the ‘bate and tapared wards on both the exterior and interior. At places it was found to rise to a height of about 15 metres above the surrounding plain. Be- bind it was a 7ometre-high mud-brick platform wpon which stood the build- ings inside the citadel. Extecoally, the citadel wall was punctuated at places by rectangular towers, and the One at the north-west corner shows that it ‘vas substantially rebuilt on three occasions. “The lack of data regarding the buildings inside the citadel is more than ‘compensated for by what bas been excavated to the north. In its shadow, there lay the workmen's quarter, their working-platforms, and a granary, the en- tire complex suggesting a high degree of regimentation of the working popala- tion. Enclosed by a boundary wal, of which only odd bits are now to be seen, the workmen's quarters stood in two rows running from east to west, Each dvelling, covering an area of about 17 by 7 metres, comprised two rooms and was entered through an oblique passage, evidently so atzanged for privacy. ‘The remarkable uniformity of these quariers reminds one of modern barracks ‘and al that they imply, Tmmediately to the north of these quarters have been identified five cast ‘west rows of working-platforms, and, although six is the maximum number excavated in any row, there were doubles many more. Wade of kiln-burnt bricks set on edge in circular rings, each platform measured about 9:5 metres in diameter. Excavation has revealed a central hole about 60 centimetres in ameter into which, itis surmised, was inserted a wooden mortar for pound ing grain, Such a gues is supporied, on the one band, by the presence of straw or husk and Wheat and barley ia the hole and on the platform and, on the other, by the location of a granary barely too metres tothe north, Why the granary at Herappa, unlike that at Mobenjovdiro, was located outside the citadel is a maiter for debate. The proximity ofthe river Ravi may be the answer, enabling the harvest from the neighbouring countryside to be transported by water direct to the granary. As to it tafe control, which its location within the fortified citadel Would have otherwise guaranteed, it may bbe assumed that an ever-vigilant eye was kept over the entire atea, right from the coolie quarters through the workshops up to the granary. Comprising two blocks, the granary complex occupied an over-all area of $5 by 43 mets. Each of the blocks contsined six storage balls, each all measuring 15 by 6 metres externally. As inthe case of the Mobenjo-déro example, here also air-duets were provided underneath the floor. f Situated on the left bank of the now-dry rived Ghaggar ia Réjasthia, Kilibangan zeveals the same pattern of plinning as do Mohenjo-déro aid fs rather loosely vie, fr thete sno cone evidence to prove tha the een ey sta, "This express system of goverament was tha of aa eopie. The possibly of there havi ‘bin Mesopotamia, should not be overlooked,4 The Indus Civilization -Harappa, with a ‘citadel? on the west side and a ‘lower town” on the east, and ago it tells us rather more. Thus the citadel complex, fortified with a 7-metre~ thick mud-brick wall with towers at intervals, consisted of two equal and well-defined parts, one to the south containing several large mud-brick. platforms meant for specific purposes and the other to the north containing residential houses, perhaps of those concerned with the aflars inthe soatheca part, The platforms were separate one from the other as also from the fort fication wall, there thus being regular passages around ther. Access Co the top of the platforms was by steps leading from the passages. On top of one of the platforms were located a wel, lined with kiln-burnt bricks, several bathing. pavements of the same material, and a series of juxtaposed clay-lined pits running in a north-south alignment, of which at least eight have been “denti- fied. Each pit measured about 60’ by 45 centimetres and contained, be- sides ash and charcoal, @ prominent stump of burnt clay in the middle, measuring about 25 centimetres in height and 10 centimetces in diameter. 1a ‘ther similar pits, usvally found singly in the houses in the lower city, have been discovered biconvex terracotta ‘cakes’, placed around the clay stump, ‘Thus it would eppear that the entire complex on this platform—the well, the bathing-pavements, and the clay-ined “ire-allars’—had a ritualistic purpose. A similar indication is given by another platform on the top of which were located a well, a Yive-altar’, and & rectangular pit (1% 1-25 metres) lined with kiln-burnt brieks and containing antlers and bones of cattle, which seem to suggest a sacrifice, The lower town at Kalibangan, while showing the usual grid pattern of main thoroughfares, subsidiary streets, cross-streets, and lanes, revealed tha it too wwas fortified, Piercing the fortifiation wall, which was made of mud oricks, were at lease two gateways, one on the northern side leading (o the river and another on the west providing access to the citadel. (It would not be surprising if farther excavations on the periphery of the lower town at Mohenja-daro beought to light the remains ofa similar town wall. Atany rate, an attempt is. worth making) In width the Kalibangan lanes and streets follovied a set ratio: thus, while the lanes were 1-8 metres wide, the streets, in multiples of the formier, were 3°6, 5-4, and 7-2 metres wide. Lothal, situated not far from the Gulf of Cambay, an inlet of the Arabian Sea, is the only site with a dockyard; this is 216 metres in-Jength (north {Co south) and 37 metres in width, situated immediately tothe east ofthe tow ship. Itis ined vith a wall 1-2 metres thick of kiln-burnt bricks, now rising to ‘a maxinium height of 4x3 metees. In the southera part of the eastern wal is a 7-metreawide gap, and excavation further to the east, in continuation of this fpenting, has revealed the bed of a channel of identical width. Itis surmised that it as through this channel that the dockyard was connected with the Bhogavo river, which, though now located about 2 kilometres away, flowed rauelt nearer in aucient times. It js thought that boats entered the dockyard through this channel at high tide, when the water syelled up and,pusted up- streain, For the discharge of excess water a sizeable spill-channel was pro- vided in the southern wall. The boats, it would appear, returned to the river when the tide was falling. In this context, reference may'also be made to a structure located aot far The indus Civilization 15 from the dockyard to the south-west, It consisted of twelve rectangular blocks made of mud bricks, arranged in four rows of tree each and covering an over-all arca of 17 by 14 metres. Between the blacks ran criss-cross channels, evidently air-ducts; over a metre in width, It is surmised that overlying these blocks was a spacious hall of timber, some slighf evidence of the latter being the debris of charcoal and fragments of charred wood found in the air-ducts In these ducts were also found over 100 lumps of clay, now partly or wholly baked, bearing impressions of typical Harappan seals (below, p. 16) on one side and of reeds on the other. These were evidently sealings on packages made ‘of reed. What the packages contained we can only guess, Ia the context of the dockyard, however, it seems likely, though not proved, that this building was warehouse where commodities Feady for expott or received from abroad wore temporarily stored. About 270 kilometres north-west of Ahmadabad in Gujarat is Surkotada. ‘The settlement pattern of Harappa, Mohenjo-divo, and Kalibangan is re- peated here, but wilh a difference. The citadel and the lower town were joined, although their relative directional position remained the same, the former to ‘the west and the latter to the east, As at Kalibangen, both the citadel and the Jover town were fortified. Each had its independent entrance, located on the southern side; there was also an intercommunicating gate Between the 10, Ta addition to mud bricks, stone rubble which is easily available in the neigh- bourhood was liberally used for construction. ‘he massive wall of the ciladel can still be seen to a height of 4-5 metres (Pl, 3). No less impressive is the gateway complex of the citadel, with its ramps and staiecases (PI. 4). So much for the structural remains which, apart from revealing the archi- tecture and town-planning of the time, have also thrown valuable light on ‘Stganizational, religious, aud commercial aspects of the life of the people. Now we shall consider the finds—the pottery, terracottas, seulptutes, seal, ‘weights, ete Pottery is found in very large quantities at all ancient sites and may well be regarded as the index to the economic and artistic standards of the popula tion—standards which may also be reflected in the few sculptural or ether artistic pieces that survive. The Indus people used a very characteristic sturdy red ware, made of well-levigated and very well-fired clay. Often it had a red slip and was painted over in black pigment with a variety of pleasing designs, floral as well a5 geometric, Sometimes birds, animals, and human figures Were depicted. In one case there is a she-goat suckling her kid, while a hen lojters nearby. In another, 2 man carries across his left shoulder an equipoise with two large nets, Judging from the portrayal of the fish and tortoise in the scene, the person may well have been a fisherman, On a painted pot from Lottal there occurs @ scene in which are depicted « bird perched on a tree holding a fish, and a fox-like animal below, The scene is very reminiscent of the story of “the clever fox? narrated in the Panchatanira, wherein the fox praised the crow seated on the tree-top for its sweet voice and thus made it ‘open its mouth and drop the morsel which the fox ran off with. ‘The terracotta figurines, human as well as animal, show vigour, variety, and ingenuity. The often illustrated shor'-borned bull from Mohenjo-daro and a similar one from Kalibangan are among the most powerful portrayals6 ‘The Indus Cwilization ofthe animal fromany ancient civilization, The human head from Katibangen, though only an inch in height, is a Keen competitor, from the point of view of expression and art, with the head of the famous steatite figure from Mohenjo-déto (below). The female figurines, with their panier head-dresses ‘an bedecked bodies, though hand-modelle, are indeed pleasing little things. ‘Ang then there are the terracotta Loys, some of which are to be noted for thie ingenuity: for example, « but with a mobile head or a monkey going up and down a sting ‘The Indus people had a highly developed art of making stone soulptores in the round. There isa striking steatite figure ofa beacded man, supposed to be 4 priest, ffom Mohenjo-daro, The inward-looking eyes and the serene expres- sion induce a relletive, meditative mood, Likewise the wo sandstone statv- | eltes from Harappi, one representing youth with muscular body and { another a dancer with one leg entivined round the cher, are of @ really high order. These could well have been the envy even of Greek sculptors some 2,000 years later. { In the art of metal sculpture too, great heights were achieved, ‘The famous | bronze female figure from Mohenjo-diro, supposed to represent a dancing F girl, with her right hand poised on the hip, her bracelet-covered left arm swung | fo rest on a bent lft leg, a necklace dangling between her breasts, and, above | al, her well-braided head haughtily thrown back, is a perfect piece of art, In | this case the feet are missing, but one is tempted to imagine that she wore | anklets as shown in another fragmentary bronze seulpture, of which only the lower portion is preserved. As well a the human figures there are fine speci- mens of bronze animals, the bufftlo from Mohenjo-diro with its massive head upraised, for exarople, or the dog attacking « deer depicted on the top of a pin from Harappa. But the Indus artist was at his best when he dealt with his seals (Pl 1). Cut out of steatite, the seals are usvally 2 to 3o milimetces square. On the ‘obverse is an inscription, generally accompanied by an animal figure; on the reverse, a perforated knob, evidently for suspension, Ite in the engraving of these seals that the great gilts of the Indus valley a ted. Indeed, there ean be no two opinions about the superb depietion on the seais of the brahmant bul, with its swinging dewiap, pronounced hump, and museular body. ‘That the Indus people were literate is fully borne out by the inscriptions on the seals, The occurrence ofinseriptions even on pottery and othec household ‘objets further shows thal literacy was not confined toa select few. ‘The script, seemingly pietogrephie snd having nearly 400 signs, hes not yet been de- ciphered. The various attempts so far have not been based on the strictest scientific prineiples and litle agreement has been reached. However, overlaps of the signs insoribed on some potsherds discovered at Kalibangan clearly show that the direction of waiting was from sight to IeN. Wherever the inscription ran into a second line, the style seems to have been Bousrophedon. While reaging and writing are duly attested to by these inscriptions, pro. Sicengy inthe third R, arithmetic, is clearly shown by the cleverly organized system of weights and measures. Made usyally of chert and cubical in shape, the weights fal inthe progression of 1,2 $3, 8, 16, 32, ete, up to 12,800. The The Indus Ctotlization " scales, of ivory or shell, indicate 2 foot’ of about 13:0 to 13°2 in. and a ‘eubit? of 20°3 to 20°8 in. Mention in this context may also be made of plumb-bobs and ‘angle-measures' of shell, ‘The Indus civilization represented a perfect Bronze Age, though chert blades continued to be used for cortain specific purposes. Bronze objects for domestic use inchucied knife-blades, saws, sickle, chiels, celts, razors, pins, tweezers, fish-hooks, and the like, “Those for defence or offence comprised spears, arrowheads, and short swords. That bronze was used in plenty is, shown by its employment for non-essential items like vessels, However, as in most other contemporary civilizations of the world, age culture was the backbone of the Indus economy. The extensive use of kill burt bricks, for the firing of which plenty of wood was needed, and the fre- quent depiction of jangle feuna such as the tiger, bison, and rhinoceros on the seals, suggest the Possibility of there having been more rainfall during the Indus period than there is now. Today itis news if Mohenjo-daro gets ev 10 centimetres of rain during the whole year. Moreover, dry channels occtir- Ting close to the sites show that in ancient times the Indus, Ravi, Ghaggst, Satlyj, and Bhogavo flowed respectively on the outskists of Mohenjo-daro, Harappi, Kalibangan, Ropar, and Lothal, Thus there was an adequate water- supply which, coupled with a rich alluvial soil, produced crops of wheat and barley, besides bananas, melons, and peas. However, pechaps the most re= ‘markable agricultural achievement was the cultivation of cotton, Even Beypt did not produce it until several centuries after it was grown i the Indus valley, ‘There is evidence to show that the people ate, besides cereals, veeetables and fruits, fish, fowl, mutton, beef, and pork, The relevant animals were evidently domesticated. There is also evidence of the domestication of the eat, the dog, and perhaps the elephant. The data about the camel and horse are less conclusive. ‘Not much evidence is available regarding the dress ofthe Indus people. The portraysl of a man on & potsherd from Harappa shows the use of the dict, ‘While the shawl as an upper garment is indicated by the famous figure of a priest from Mohenjo-diro (above, p. 16). The two—the dot? and shav!— bring to mind the picture of an average Hindu of the modern Indian village ‘The occurrence of needles and buttons shows that atleast some of the clothes were stitched. ‘The variety of ways in which the women-folk did their hair and bedecked their persons suggests that life was not all toil. The brnaments included, from head to foot, the btja, eat-rings, necklaces, bracelets, girdles, and anklets, The bija, a hollow conical object, is typical even today of the maids of Rajasthan. ‘There were pastimes too, like the playing of dice ot, for the more daring, the hunting of wild animals. The youngsters played hopscotch and marbles, while the small children played with rattles and toys, some being noteworthy for their clever methods of manipulation (above, p. 16). ‘The Indus population, particularly of the cities, was a cosmopolitan one. Tt included Mediterraneans, Proto-Australoids, Alpines, and Mongoloids, In keeping with such s mixed popalation, there was 4 wide variety of religious practices. The portrayal on,several seals of a-horned, three-faced figure,3 The Indus Civilization surrounded by various animals, wild and domesticated, brings to mind the eon Eeption of Siva in the form of Pesnpatt, the Lord of Animals, The presence of 4 prototype ofthe ater Saivite cults also suggested by the oectrcencs of what may have been linger and yon. A Kind of ritual associated with hre-phces has slveady been reterced C6, There was also the worship of the Mother God- dess. The adoration of trees and streams, or pechape ofthe spirits supposed to be residing in them, is also suggested by te relevant data A belie horefte is evident from the burat practice according to which along with the dead person were placed objects lke micrors, antimony rods, mother-of fear Shells, anda large number of pots, some of which in life seein to have been used for eating ané drinking tp one cave a fowl was also placed inthe prver pit. For some reason now unknown, the body is invariably to be found hing fom north to sooth, the head being towards the north. Among the grves excavated at Harappa, of unasual interest was one in which the body was placed ina wooden cofin, Cofin burials were comnion in Sargon'd Irad and itis not unlikely that a westener was buried hee. ‘This probable presence of @ Westerner at Harappa need not suprise vs. CConiaets with western Asia age suggested on the one hand by the occurrence at the Indus sites of articles of knowin svestern origin, for example spicl- and animal-hended pins, msce-heads, socketed adze-anes of copper or bronze, and vases of elorite schist with typical “hut-andewindow decoration; and, ofthe other, by the find of seals and sealings of the Indus syle at est Asion sites sucks 3s Ur, Susa, Umma, Lagach, and Tell Asmar, Incidentally, a sealing st Umma is roperted to have been associated with a bale of cloth--cvidently on export from India. In more recent years, seal (Pl 2) has been Fount at otha, which is moce ot les of the same type as those found at contemporary sites on the Persian Gulf such as Barber, Ras-al-Qale, and Failaka. Ths dis covery, combined with that of the dockyard atthe same site (above, p. 14), coves beyond doubt that the trade with westem Asia was, at leat in part Inaritime. Overland teade, parkape i the fashion of te caravan tade of his torical times, also seems fo have taken place, For the presence in the Indus sites of artictes of lapis laa, jade, turqooise, ete, not indigenous to the soil, cannot be explained except by trade wth Iraq, Iran, Alghaniston, snd Ceoiral Asia, the fast to of Which afe connected with the Indus valley by Jand alone, ‘Until recently, the main evidence for fixing the chronological hocizon ofthe Indus civilization was the aforesaid seals of Indian ocgin found in wesern Asia. Of these, a dozen were Found in databie content, seven inthe Sorgonid period (c. 2300 0.6), ons in pre-Saggonid, three in Latsa (e. 1800 m..), aud one in Kassite (c. 1500 8), To add to this Was the evidence of segmented bead offence from late Indus feels, the composition of which has specto graptzally been found tobe similar to that of beads ofthe same materiel fom Knossos, aseribable to 6. 1600 a.c. On these bases, a rough millensiom, 2300-1500 1. Was Teparded as the period ofthis great civilization. Duting the past decade, however, Carboa-t4 meaturements bave been carved out on rnaterials from Kalibangan, Lotkel, Sorkotadd, and. Mobenjo-daro. While broadly upholding the above dating, the Carbon-c4 determinations indeate a somewhat shorter duration ofthe civilization, frp, 2400 to 1700 nc. Atthe The indus Chel on 19 same time it must be added that scientists working on the subject have ob= Served that Carbon-14 activity has not been constant in the past and that there is a likelihood of the C-14 dates between 200 8.c. and 4000 8.C. being pushed back slightly. Again, at Mohenjo-daro there still emain the unfathomied lower levels. Thos, it may well be that the beginning of this civilization was earlier than that indicated at present by the Carbon-r4 dates, ‘What brought the Indus cities to an end has for long been a matter of de- bate. The occurrence in the habitation area at Mohenjo-dlaro of some human skeletons, including one of which the skull bears the mark of a cut, has been interpreted as evidence of a massacre at the hands of the invading Aryans. This view, however, now seems untenable. Tn the first place, the skeletons do riot all belong to one and the same occupation-level, which shoutd also be the latest, marking the end of the Indus settlement, Secondly at the site there is no evidence of an alien culture immediately overlying the Indus one. To save the situation, the post-Indus Cemetery Hat Harappa has been brought into the picture. it has, however, been demonstrated elsewhere by the present weiter ‘that there was an appreciable lime-lag between the end of the Indus eiviliza~ tion and the beginning of Cemetery H. Thus the Cemetery H_peaple can hardly be regarded as the jnvaders if those invaded had ceased to exist at the time. And to regard the Cemetery H people as Aryans is fraught with still greater difficulties. In the present staie of our knowledge, such people are con- spicuously absent from the Ghaggae (ancient Sarasvatl), Sailyj, and. upper Ganga valleys—regions where the early Aryans are known from their own. Jiterature to have resided, Another theory ascribes the end of the Indus civilization to heavy flooding. This may, however, be only partly true. For, while some evidence of devastae tion by Moods is to be found at Mohenjo-daro and Lothal, there is no such evidence in respect of other sites, for example Kalibangan. At this site, neither the invader nor the flood can be invoked. Here perhaps the drying up of the Ghaggar—pradval or sudden, owing either to climatic changes of to the diversion of the waters resulting from factors at or near their source—may have been the cause of the desestion of the site. Pestilence and the erosion of the suzrounding landscape owing to over-exploitation may also be reasons for the end of certain settlements, Be that as it may, there is enough evidence to chow thet the great Indus civilization did not come to a sudden dead end, For example, at Lothal, from its Period A (Indus) to B (post-Indus), there is a gradual change in the pottery ‘and the disappearance or replacement by others of certain kinds of antiquities. This devolution is further continued at the neighbouring site of Rangpur, Likewise a change of face is also indicated by the evidence From sites in eastern Panjab and north-western Utlac Pradesh, The Indus civilization no doubt fell; all the same it left many indelible imprints on the latter-day cultures of the subcontinentCHAPTER ITT The Early Aryans’ by T, Burrow ation of Tia developed from the cari Vedic civilization, ization was the creation of the Aryans, an iavadiog people, ‘Whose first areval in the subcontinent is probably tobe dated ubout 1500.3. Perhaps some 200 years after this estimated date there began to come into boeing a collection of religious hymns which were eventuelly organized as the Reveda, the fnal redaction of which probably antedates 1000 v.c. Or know edge of the Aryans in India dacing this earliest period is based primarily on this work, From the Reveda emerges a fairly clear picture of the situation at that time. A series of related tribes, settled mainly inthe Panjab and adjacent regions, speaking a common Ianghage, sharing & common religion, and de- signating themaeves by the name dry, are epresented as being ia state of permanent confit with « hostile gcoup of peoples known variously es Disa 6 Dasyu, From the Feequent references to these conflicts it emerges that their result was the complete victory ofthe Aryans. During the period represented by the later Samhitas and the Brahmaua texts the Aryans are scen to have ex- tended their tersitory, principally inthe direction of the east, dowa the Ganga valley, and references to conflicts with the Dasa are rare. Other terms, eg Imlecoha. and nipada~ are used a3 designations of non-Aryan tribes, while the ‘word désa becomes the usual word for “slave”. On the other hand the term 4rya- is opposed not only to the external barbaiian, but also to the lowest of the four castes, the sidra, I the latter context the word drya- naturally ac quires the meaning ‘noble, honourable’, and the word continues jn use in both senses down to the clastzal period, North Iadia is referred to as Aryivacte, “the country wheve the Aryans live’, or, in Pili as ariyam dyatanany, The Jaina texts have Frequent references to the distinction between Arya and Mlecebs, In Tamil fieratuce the/kings of north India are referred to Aryan ings. On the other hand the ethical use of the word is illustrated by the Buddhist ‘Noble Eightfold Path* (ariyam afshaigikam maggam)) where the ‘word has no etbni significance. “The Aryans, whose presence in north-westera India is documented by the Reveda, bad reached the territory they then occupied through a migration, or rather, a succession of migrations, rom outside the Indian subcontinent, The final stage of this migration eannot have been very fae removed from the be- ginning of the composition of the Revedo, but, at the same time, sufficient period of time must have elapsed for any clear recollection of it to have dis- "-Thie chapter, fa vow of the many Sansklt tne sad quotations which it contains, em- ploys the full apparatus of siartc signs used in the scholarly transieation of Indian Tanguages. The reader should remember that ji estwher transiteated a rand § 35 3h. sounded as English ch, The iranian £¥salso pronounced sss, Iranian 8 sous ks ‘hia thing’. Ianiad sik chin Seottsh of German Loch, The Barly Aryans 2 appeared, since the hymns contain no certain references to such an event, ‘The Aryan invasion of India i recorded in no written document, and it ean not yet be traced archacologicaly, but itis nevertheless frmly established as a historical fact on the basis of comparative philology. The Indo-European languages, of which Sanskrit in its Vedic form is one of the oldest members, originated in Europe, and the only possible way by which a language belong- ing to this family could be carrie all the way to India was a migeation of the people speaking it. The general outline of this process can be elutidated to Some extent oa the basis ofthe mutual celationship of the languages concerned. "Apart from its belonging to the Indo-European faily in general, Sanskrit, or Old Indo-Aryan, is more closely and specifically related to the Tranian troup of languages, of which the oldest representatives are Old Persian and ‘Avestan, The relationship is i fact so cose that these to peoples, who both designated themselves as Aryans, must, at some earlier time, have constituted fsigle nation of people, speaking, with due allowance for dialectal diver- ‘gence, the same language, This earlier Aryan language, commonly referred to fs Primitive Indo-Iranian, i the source fcom which the Jeter Iranian and Indo- ‘Aryan languages ate derived. Jn the period preceding the Aryan invasion of Tadla, they were settled, in all probability, io the Centeal Asian regions border- ing the Oxus and the Jexartes, and the Aral and Cespian seas. From this base, sections of them may be presumed to have pushed vp into the highlands of ‘Afghanistan, and then to have descended feom this base into he plains ofthe Panjab, In the opposite direction other Aryan tribes from the same region moved westwards jntoTean, whece they frst appear in Assysian records inthe nid ofthe ninth century a,c. The beginning of their occupation of Fran is Comaonly put not earlier than 1000 .c., whichis considerably later than the ryan migrations into India if the above-mentioned estimated dates are Correct, The Iranians retained a memory of their original home, under the name of airyanan vag (Evan Ve), and the egion continued to be occupied by them down to the time of the ‘Tarkish invasions. ‘The common culture and religion developed by the Aryans in their earlier home is sil refleced in the earliest texts of the Iranians and Indo-Aryans respectively. Inthe esse ofthe latter the religions reforms of Zarathustra Ted {o some remarkable alteations, which resulted, for instance, in the old word for "god" (Skt. deva-) acquiring the meaning ef ‘demon’ (Av, dagua.), while certain prominent gods in the Veda (eg. Indra) have been reduced to the fatter status in the Avesta, In spite of this, a considerable amount of the comuon heritage remained. Athough the name Indra came to be applied to S demon, his tide Vriraan- in its Iranian form PrOragna-, designates an im- portant deity. ‘The Iranian Mithra, corcesponding to the Vedic Mitra, re- aained one of their most important gods, later to hve e remarkable career in the Roman Empire, Fire-worship and the calt of Soma are a common in heritance in both India and Iran. A common mythology is illustrated by such figures as Vedic Yama the 4on of Vivasvant and Avestan Yimna the son of Vivabvant, A basi religious terminology is shared, e.g. Vetc hotar- "priest, ‘pofta"sactifce’, rt "truth, divine order": Av, zaotar, yasna-,afa-(O, Pers. ‘arta), Common terms occur likewise in the polltical (Skt. Kyatra- ‘sove- teignty"s Av. afore), military (Skt. send ‘army": Av. haénd, 0. Pets. hand),2 The Farly Aryans a “fila”, urgard ‘arable land": Av, $é1dra- ", uroard ‘etop". A division of society into classes which ia India crystallized into the four-easte system is closely paralleled in Iran, ‘The evolution of this common inherited culture may be held to bave taken place in its later stages in the Central Asian homeland of the Atyans, and tei residence there, prior to the Indian migration, may have lasted or a considerable period. At a sill earlier period the evidence points to.n loca. ization of the Aryans much firther to the west. In the fit place the Indes European connections of the Aryan languages, which indicate that they riginsted jn Europe, make it necessary to assume a sill eatier migration ‘hich took them from Europe to Central Asia. In the second place intersting confirmation of an earlier Aryan homeland further to the west is provided by the evidence of Aryan loan-words in the Finno-Ustian languages, An om, ‘ample is the Finnish word sata “hundred”, which can be showin to represent phonetically Sata: (ve, the Indo-Aryan and Primitive Indo-Iranian form ofthe Word, and not the later Iranian save). Thee is a considerable body of loans like this which cannot be derived from Iranian, and which most therefore save been taken over io the Prisitive Indo-Iranian period. At the time of these borrowings, therefore, the Aryans and the ancestors of the Finno-Ugians must haye been in close contact. In view of the present distibution of the Tinno-Ugrian languages, and of their probable ancient situation, itis on Sluded that, when these words were borcowed, the primitive Aryans from ‘whose language they swere taken must have been situated not further east than the Volga and the Urals. t was only after the period of theie influence on inno-Ugeian that the main centre of the Aryans shifted towards Central AL this stage, which may be provisiobally fixed towards the beginning ofthe second millennium .c, we are already dealing with the Aryans as a separete community, already detached from the other branches ofthe Indo-Europeans Ata sill earlier stage, say the midgle of the third millennium 9.0, a situation Just be assumed in which the speakers of the language from which the later Aryan tongues were derived! were still members of the. original Tndos European community, and theic language wes a dialect of Indo-European, fot having developed into a separate language ofthe group, as it had done uring the stage previously referred to (2000-1500 2.c). This assumplion ine Plies an original location still further to tie west, and for this aso Ting stie evidence can be produced, Out of all the languages of the Indo-European amily, the Balto-Slavonic group shows signs of having had the closest ele tionship with Indo-Tranian. Since these languages are not likely to have ‘moved far [rom the region where they are first historically attested, this cone nection is @ useful pointer to the earliest place of origin of the Indo-Iranian family In addition to many other special similarities the two groups ate charac: red’, as opposed to Lat, centun), which is also found in Albanian and Armenian. On the stiength of this Common innovation, these languages are usually considered to form a special group among the Indo-European lan- suages, and are termed the satan languages, afler the Avestan word for ‘The Barly Aryans 23 “hundred I does in fact seem likely that this change took place at such an eatly period that the ancestors ofall these languages were still in contact. In addition to theso special relationships Indo-Iranian also shows evidence of « special relationship with Gresk, which is particularly noticeable in the mor- phology of the verb. With other Indo-Bucopean languages Indo-Iranian shows no sign of special connection, This isnot to be expected in the case of the western Indo- Europzan languages (italic, Celtic, Germanic) in view of theic geographical situation, Hittite and the kindred languages of Asia Minor are in a special position, since they show such profound differences from the more familiar type of Indo-European that itis necessary to assume their very early separa- tion, These peoples must have passed over from the Balkans into Asia Minor at-a period long preceding their earliest appearances in the written historical record. More problematical is the case of the two closely related languages, conventionally styled Tochirion A and B, of which manuscript remains were discovered ia Chinese Turkestan at the begioniog of the present century. In Yiew of their situation it might have been expected that they would have shown some signs of closer contact vith Indo-Iranian; but ofthis there is no ication whatever. They farther show no siga of any particular connection ‘vith any other section of Indo-European, and these faci are best explained by the assumption of an early separation of this group (though not as early as tho separation of Hittite, otc). The later eastward expansion of the Aryan tribes outlined above must have been responsible for pushing them further and forther to the east, unit they finally settled in Chinese Turkestan. ‘There are no linguistic traces of early contacts between the two groups, and it is ‘only rauch lates thatthe infuence of Iranian on Tocharian can be noted. ‘So far we have ad to rly entiely on linguistic relationships to account for the origin and early movements of the Aryans. After about 1509 3.¢. docu- mentary evidence becomes available, not from India and lean, the countries of their permanent settlement, but from the Near East, where a section of Aryans established a temporary domination which was to have no lasting elects. The documentary evidence from this quatter consists of a number of proper names, some names of gods, and some words, from which the pre- sence of Aryans in this region during the period 1500-1300 ».c, can be de- duced. They appear always in connection with the Hucrians, a non-Indo- European people of local origin, who were also engeged in considerable ex- pansion at the time, In particuldr the Hurrian state of Mitanni, to judge by the names of its kings, was, duting its most influential period, under the domination of Aryan kings backed up by an Aryan aristocracy, Other minor states in Syria had ralers with similar Aryan names. These Aryans did not come in sufficient numbers to impose their own language and civilization on the country io which they had settled; they seem always to have used Hurrian as their offical language, and afler the end of this period they were absorbed into the native population without leaving any further (race. The most important document is a treaty between the Hittite and Mitanui kings, im which appear Sour divine names familiar from the Veda, namely, Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and Nasatya. In addition Suria3, © meaning the sun-sod, appears in’a document of the Kassites (who other-26 The Early Aryans the Vedic period in India remained archeeologicelly almost a complete blank. Even now the position has not advanced fer beyond this, It was only towards the end of the Vedic period that the development of cities was resumed, Whereas for the Indus civilization archaeology is the only soures of out Knowledge, information concerning the Vedic Aryans depends eaticely on literary texts which were hanced down by oral tradition, ‘These do not provide ‘any proper historieal account, since that is not their concern, but a good deal of incidental information of # historical of semi-histotical cheracter emerges, and also a fairly clear and consistent picture of the life and civilization of the period, It is a much-diseussed question to what extent the Indus civilization uenced that of the Arysns, and opinions on this matter have considerably liverged. On the whole the Vedic texts themselves give the impression that such influence, iit existed, was not of great importance. In the first place, the attitude of the Vedic poets towards the Dasas and theie civilization was one of tunconipromising hostility, and was distinctly unreceptive to any influences the religious field, which might otherwise have had some effect. Fuethermore the physical destruction and depopulation of mast of the Indus cities, which is attested by archaeology, must have effectively removed most of the bases from which such influence could spread. Later, of course, as Aryan civil tion developed into Hindu civilization, many non-Aryan influences appeared, but they are not prominent in the Vedic period, and they do not seem to have Jnnd any direct connection with the prehistorie civilization of the Indus cities. ‘The territory occupied by the Aryans atthe time of the Receda can be de- fined with reference to the river names mentioned in the text. These are, in the first place the Indus (Sindhu) and its main tributaries, the five rivers of the Panjab, To the west of this there is mention of the Krumt, Gomatl, and Kubha (the Kurcam, Gomal, and Kabul rivers) and of Suvastu (Swat), show= ing that the Aryans extended to within the boundaries of present Afghanistan ‘To the east the Sarasvati, Dysadvatt, and Yamuna are in Arysn territory, and the Gangi is mentioned in one late hymn, Most ofthis territory had lain with in the sphere of the Indus civilization, On the other hand little is heard of the regions of the-lower Indus where that civilization had equally flourished, ‘The Aryans were divided into a large number of independent tribes, nora ally ruled by kings, who, when not fighting the Disas or Dasyus, were fie- quently engaged in fighting each other, Nevertheless, the Aryans were highly conscious of their ethaic unity, based on a common language, a common re- Higion, and n common way of Ife, and of the contrast between themselves and ‘earlier: inhabitants. The latter were partly absorbed into the Aryan com- ‘munity in the capacity of éOdras, and partly they withdrew to regions tem. porarily out of the reach of the Aryans. The fact that the Aryans were able to retain their identity and maintain their cultuce so completely, ia a country which had previously been both well populated and highly civilized, implies that they must have come in great numbers, not in one eampaign of conquest, ‘but in a series of waves lasting over a long petiod, sufficient to provide a ‘numerous population which in turn could form the basis of further expansion ‘The situation was just the opposite-of that which prevailed in the Near East, ‘where conquests effected by small bands of warriors resuited in temporary The Barly Aryans a domination, but where their numbers were too smal 1 prevent their absorp- tion after a Tow generations into the native population, “The area occupied by the Aryans continued to expand in the period repre- sented by the later Vedic texts, and there was a shift eastwards inthe centre of s1aviy. By the time ofthe Brdlmayas the centre of Aryan civilization had be- ome the country of the Kurus and Pareles, corresponding roughly to modem Uttar Pradesh, while the western settlements in the Panjab were lest important, Further expansion to the east had taken place and the most im- portant stetes inthis region were Kosala, Kis and Videha, The main Aryan ‘advance at this peviod was down the Ganga valley, keepi to the north of the river, Itis likely that the main route of migeation followed the foot-ills of the Himalaya, avoiding inthe first instance the densely forested country surrounding the river itself. By fac the greater number of tribes and Kingdoms mentioned in the texts ofthis period lay to the north of the Ganga ‘Those lying to the south, eg, the Cedis, the Satvants, end the kingdom of Vidarbha, were much fever, and more rarely mentioned, The Aryans were at this time Surrounded by a variety of non-Aryaa teibes, of which a ist Js pron vided by the Aitoreya Brahman: Andhras, Pundras, Matibes, Plindas, and Sabaras. The countries of Age and Magadha appear from the sources to have been only partially Aryanized. ‘In the Reveda the confit between Arya'and Dasyu figured prominently, rellecting, as we have seen, a prolonged stmed struggle in whieh the Aryans finally emerged as the undisputed victors. Such referenezs cease in the later Vedio literature, and the term Dasyu, as applied to non-Aryan peopl compatatively rare. On the other hand the term Nip, applied to primitive forestdweller, is comparatively Frequent, The explanation fs that the nature of the Aryan advance and settlement had changed. Once the Indus eviiza- 9 had been overthcoa, and the greater part of is teritory occupied, there remained no advanced civilized states to contend with, The Gangs valley seems at this time to have beea thinly populated by forest tribes, possessing no advanced civilization and waable to offer any coherent resistance to the Aryans. The colonization that took place down the valley, at fist prineipally {o the north ofthe river, was mainly a matter of clearing forests and Founding agricaltural settlements, a contisuous and prolonged process extending over centuries, In the uncleated forest segions the primitive tribes of Nisddes cone tinued to reside in the midst of Aryan territory, and relations between the two seer to have been established on a basis of mutual toleration. Naturally as the activity of forest-clearing proceeded the scope for the independent existence of the forest-tribes became more limited, and sections of thems, under. such names as Pukkasa and Cindala, attached themselves to the fringe of Aryan society, forming the nucleus of what were to become eventually the depressed classes, : “The third stage in the Aryan occupation of India falls within the period 800-5503.c. Ithas been observed that atthe beginaing ofthis period, accord- ing to the evidence of the Brahmanas, the portion of Ladin occupied by the Aryans was still comparatively limited, and that they were surrounded by & ring of non-Aryan peoples, some of whose names are mentioned. A very much wider extension of Aryan language and culture can be observed at the28 The Barly Aryans tine of the rise of Huddhism and Jainism, towards the end of the sixth century 2.6. Obviously the intervening period had been one of entonsive migeation and colonization. The result was thatthe bovodares of Aryavaria, tos courtty of the. Aryens, were defined as the Himalaya and Vindhiya mountains © the north and south, andthe eastern and western Geeans, One of the oan ines of expansion a this time lay to the southeweet, embracing Avanti and adjaceat regions, and extendingas far as Admaka and Malaka in the region of theuppet Gorlivack. The advance to the east continued with the cecupation of the greater part of Bengal (Panda, Suhme, Varga, ete) and Orissa (K alies), ‘The areas to the south of the Ganga connecting these two linea of advance wre also progressively brought within the Aryan fold. References to these events can be found scattered throughout the epics and Purdpas, of which it will be sufcient to mention the founltion of Dviraka on the west coast ascribed to Kysoa, and the activites of the Haihayes and allied beri ‘Avant. The overall result was that by the end of the sinth century hic the portion of India occupied by Aryans was vastly increased, and the cueaey of the Indo-Aryan language was correspondingly extended. A map tepre, senting the entent of the Aryan occupation atthe end of this perfod vould probably show a general correspondence with the boundaries of Indo-Aryan fn a modern linguistic map. After ths, Aryan influence Tocher south, in Dravidian India, vas @ matter of cultural penetration, not, es previous, of conquest and setlement, a Ding the Brdlmana pesiod the Aryans maintained in essential thee ethnic identity and their Vedie cultse. There was considecable nteraal Je. velopment, and, in paticalsr, the brékmeas increased their status and strengthened theic organization. The ritual was enormously developed, and ihe texts on which we depend for a pitire ofthe period are mainly eovenraed this, This tate organization was stabilized and developed, anda vaely of olices are revorded, even though their precise functions are not aivays clear. The politial units became larger and the state began to replace the icibe. There were considerable advances in material culture as attested BY both literature,and archaeology. City life began again in soa way, since & number of places mentioned, eg. Kampily, Parte, AsandTvant, appear te have boon towns rather than villages, ‘The rapid expansion during the period 800-50 .c. ad the result tht in the new territories the Aryans were mich more thinly spread than inthe old, and they were toa greater extent mixed with the pre-existing population. This fact is noted in some ancien tents. For insance the Baudhayana Dharmesira says that the peoples of Avent, Adiga, Magtdha, Sura, Daksinapitha, Upave, Sindhu and Sauvira aro of mixed oriin cwikirawyon), and further Jays down an offering of atonement for those who vst the countries ef the Aratas, the Karaskara, the Pundras, the Sauviras, the Vasgas, the Kaligas, and the Prisinas, These lists cover a large part of the territories colonized ring the period 869-450 3.¢, and attest to the fact that these tetitories ‘were only imperfectly Aryanized in contrast to what had bappened ia the earierpetiods, The lists elso contain the nemes of a number of nomAryan tribes, many of which sil no doubt retained their identity and language ‘The influence of the pre-Aryans on Aryan culture should probably be re- ‘The Early Aryans 29 garded as having begun to take effect during this period, and iti associated withthe enim the Vee ciation to he Inte: Hindu ciation. “This was probably also the time when the epic teaditions, later to culminate ia the Mahabharara and the Ramiyava, began to take shape. New developments in religion which eventually evolved into the fater Hinduism, which contrasts in many ways with the Vedie religion, also had their first beginnings in this period. The great increase in the complexity ofthe caste system which ebsrac- {erizes later Hindu civilization was also stimulated a¢ this time by the neces- sity of somehow fiting into the framework of Aryan society a large variety of previously independent tribes, who in many parts of the newly conquered farea must have formed the majority of the population, The Aryan culture, based oa the Vedic cltute, remained the centralizing facior, but from now on it was more subject to non-Aryan influences. The influence of Aryan civiliza- tion was felt latest in the Dravidian south, The fist Aryan colonization of Ceylon is supposed to have taken place about the time of Buddha, and the carliest Aryan penetration in south India i likely to have occurred about the surae time, Later the Mauzya Empire was in control of most of the Deeean, ‘aly the Tamil princes of the extreme south cemining independent. The Sitavahana Empire which followed also represented Aryan domination and penciration in this-region, as cau be seen from the Fact that the official lang- tage of this dynasty and of some of its immediate successors was Middle Indo-Aryan. This politcal influence was associated with the spread of reli sions from north India, both Brabmenical and Buddhist or Jaina, In contrast, however, to the previous stages of expansion, the Aryan language was not permanently imposed on this region, and aller about 4.0. 500 Kannada, and later Teluga, began to be used in inscriptions, Gradually the native Dravidian element gained the upper band, and the boundaries between Aryan and Dravidian India were restored to a line representing the limit of Atyan con- 4guests about 500 a.c, At the same time the whole subcontinent was uated by common culture, of which the Aryans were the original founders, but to Which Deavidians and others elso made their contibutions.CHAPTER IV The Early Dravidians’ by JOHN R, Marr ‘Twp word that has come down to us as ‘Dravidian’ hes had 4 very long. history as a referential term for the southern portion of India, Greek geo graphers knew the area as Damirlea or Limyriké: ‘Then come Naura and ‘Tyndts, the fist marts of Damitica.’: ‘8, Linyrike: Tyndis, w city ...'3 ‘The latter reference reminds one of course of the legendary Atlantis of the Indian Ocean, Lemuria, supposedly inhabited by lemurs. It will be noticed that both Greek forms, Damiriea and Limyrike, have au r at the beginning of the third syllable, They too had dificulty with a Dravidian sound in the source- ‘word, os will be seen shortly. Sanskrit sources have Dravid! and Domi, and later Dramida and Drévida, the immediate sources of ovr ‘Dravidian’. Tt seems likely that all these words are to be connected ultimately with a non-Indo-Aryan word, possibly in the form in which we have it today, namely, Tanai. The lest sound of this Word, & retcoflex aflricate, is one peculiar to one or two languages in the south of India, and has been dispensed with in two of the main ones, ‘Telugu and Kannada, Clearly, Greek and Sanskrit had difficulties with it, and did thefr best, as shown above. There is, however, no justification for assiming that, at the period of the classical geographers, the word meant the Tail language as at present differentiated from other south Indian tongues. It seems more likely that there was at that time a relatively undifferentiated non-Indo-Aryan speech in the south to which the term Profo- Dravidian is usually applied. Such a situation must have obtained long before the earliest surviving literary or other records in whet is now the Tamil-speaking area of south-east India Such records can be with some assurance assigned to a period around the third century n.c. for inscriptions, and o one about the commencement of the Chistian era for literature, Both are recognizable as Tamil, and we have no evidence of any sort for any other distinet Dravidian speech from so early a date, Indeed there is some evidence that points the otber way; at the level of ccourt-poetry atleast, Tamil was still used in the area where Malayélam is now spoken at the time of the earliest extant Tamil literature, ‘This region was Known in Tamil as Seranddi, and in Sanskrit as Kerala.t iteration of Tamil words following the sytem ef the Medias University Tani Lesoon, hich e standard nowadays among specialist, has ber simple fled sed adapted forthe Benet ofthe genera vader, except in the case ofa few words ds ‘cused in thei lotic context. The letlertranslterted hate 48 £ sl be found tn ober ‘ch according o ts sual pronuaclalon in Indo-Aryan languages. Pers satece KA. Nilkanta Sass, Forelgn Notices of South Indi. Se > Ptolemy, Geoerapiy, vi 1 See JW, MeCeindle, eter Indl, pp. 48°9- “Kerala probably preterver& Proio-Dravidian Wlsied Reva. See' urew in BSOAS, 11 (iq), 136, fa the Tal anthology: poems the Kings of this replon sere called Sera, Pi. Sevaler. The Karly Dravidians Er Proto-Dravidian, then, was « non-Indo-Aryaa speech, and it follows from this thot the languages we know as Dravidian languages are distinet too, It lies beyond the scope of this essay to enter into detailed linguistic discussion. as to the differences, One of the characteristics of the Dravidian, as of the “Turkic languages, is what is known as agglutination, whereby safes, them- selves often recognizable as connected with meaningful roots, are added to nouns and verbs to inflect their meaning, providing case-endisgs, for ex- tuple, For instance, the locative case-sufit in Tamil -f, would seem to be connected with the word for ‘house’ in various Dravidian languages; Tamil haat if, Telugu ily, otc. Number and case are indicated by two distinct suiixes, in that order, eg Tem, mip ‘fish’, mizat“fish* (accasative), miagal ‘fishes pilagalt ‘fshes" (ace.). Notice that the efse.sufbxin the ploral is the same as in the singular, It will be recalled that quite a different situation obtains in Indo-European or Indo-Aryan languages, where one set of single suffixes used in the singular and a differen set inthe plural, wherein such suffixes de= rote both ease and number Following from the readily analysable nature of agglutinative languages, at least in a primitive or theoretical stage, it can be seen that to write such lang ‘ages in a pictographic or ideographie script is an attractive possibility. OF recent yesrs, Dravidian las been the stcongest contender for the language of the as yot undeciphered Mohenjo-dico seal characters, These appear on about 2,000 seals as short inscriptions accompanying rather conventionalized pletuzes of animals, the bul figuting prominently among them.* It will at once be clear that we are speaking of an area very distinct geo- graphically from that of piesent-day Dravidian languages which is that of Peninsular India south of line from, say, Goa on the west coast to Ganjirm on the east. The area of the Mohenjo-daro and Harappa city-cultures is that ‘of the Indus valley, in Sind and the Panjab, But, just asi Britain and westera ‘Burope the Celtic languages, once widely prevalent, were pushed westwards to the Atlantic eoast, extending from north-west Spain to the Hebrides, by intrasive languages feom the eas, it has been argued that Dravidion languages ‘were once prevalent throughout India, being pushed southwards by the in- vasions of Indo-Aryan speakers fom the north-west, a movement that, itis pretty clear, took place between about 2500 and 1500 n.c. ‘That there were Dravidian languages in the north would be mere speculation were it mot for the fact that, to this day, there remains @ pocket of Dravidian speech, the language Brio, spoken by about 250,000. people in the highlands of Ballchistin, onthe Pakiston-Afghanistaa border, Notwithstanding the meagre nature ofthe historical evidence it seems more reasonable to assume flict status for Beans, rathec than an improbable migration from the plains of Dravidian speakers some 800 miles avay, and the exchange of a seitled agricultural regime for a hersh, nomadic, and pastoral one, ‘On the assumption then that Dravidian languages were once widely pre- valentin the subcontinent and that they were displaetd by Indo-Aryan in the north, the attractiveneas of them as the language of the city-cultures. of Pakisian becomes clear, ‘The most important and recent statement of this, + Fora recent accoun of these cules se S, Pigott, Preierte Id, po. 132-285: {See M.D. Emenea, Dra ond Dessldian Compara Grain Be2 The Barly Dravidiens position is that of Asko Parpola and others, in three special publications of ‘the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.* While the authors have indeed amassed much evidence in support of their view, itis the case that tLe second ‘and thisd publications contain some corrections of theic original position, to- gether with speculative matter connected with Indus valley cultuce, religion, and iconography, all of which detracts from the acceptability of the purely linguistic argument out of which their theories originated. The authors do not, for instance, advance really convincing reasons for reading the ideographs from right (0 lef? Moreover, we are of course still none the wiser about the sound of the words or syllables ‘depicted and the best the authors can do is to read them as reconstructed Proto-Dravidian, It should be added that similar conclusions have been reached by Russian scholars, led by Yu, Knorazoy, also using computers. If we accept the view of Parpola, Knorozov, and others that speakers of Dravidian languages were productive of cultures as far back as the thicd ‘millennium a.c., a central date for the Indus valley eultuce, we are sill faced with a gap of 1,500 years during which no certain records of Dravidian were produced, 2 period when, we may assume, the Dravidians were overtbrown from theic culture-ceatres in north India aud pushed into the centre ard sonth of the peainsula by the Todo-Aryans. Such a gap takes us up to the earliest known ‘Tamil inscriptions, which are in the Brahm! seript and belong to the third century n.¢, These will be diteussed shorty. Whether Dravidian languages or the speakers thereof existed in Inia from the beginning of man in the subcontinent, or were themselves ineursors like the Indo-Aryans and their languages later, is Jikely to remain unresolved in the preseat slate of knowledge. Because of their agglutinative structure, these Janguages bave been associated with Caucasian languages, and even with Basque.’ Better established is the longest-held view as to the external afi tioas of Dravidian. It is that of Caldwell!and Rask, thet Dravidian is affliated to what they termed Scythian languages, now usually called Turk and Finno-Ugrian. Similacly there remains ignorance of what languages were spoken by the various Stone Age cultures in India, there being the added difficulty of the co- existence of a number of these with cultures of an altogether higher order synchronically. We know nothing, for instance, of the languages of the Soan Indusiry in the Himalaya foot-hills or of the Madras Industry in south-edst India. The most promising archaeological link with the admittedly tenuous theory of the Mediterranean affinities of the Dravidians is provided by the south Indian megalithic culture. This, however, may not itself be older than about 200 a.c."* Gordon Childe bas seen possible links with Mediterranean ? Pabtictions Nos. 1 and 2, Copenbagen, 199, No. 3, Copenhagen, 1970. The theory was previously advanced, somevtiai romantically ethan, by such writers at H. Hers, Srees | Proto-indo- Mediterranean Culture, Vol. 1, Bombs, 1953 ee Pagpola ean Publication No. 1 pp 189, ice N. Lahovary, Dravidian Origins and the West, Bombay, 964 Soe R. Caldvell 4 Comparative Granner ofthe Drovii or South-Indian Pally of Langinges, sce, pp. tf The origioal edition of thle work, in 3836, effectively marked the commencement of the study of Dravidian linguistics, and’a good deal of Tishop Calves work has yet to besucpasied,”Piggot, op. elty 38 ‘The Early Dravidian 33 and Caucasian mogaliths of sites such as Brahmagiri vie the Sialk B geaves ia ‘Iran; the connection may have been by sea It may be speculative to asiga Dravidian speech to any one particular racial tye but it has been suggested that brachycephalic Arinenoid types in Todia, ving affinities in Armenia, Anatolia, and Iran, brought Dravidian into Indie. While there are, then, reasonable hypotheses on linguistic, cultural, and anthropological grounds for uggesting that Dravidian languages originated outside Indie, specially n western Avia, there is a5 yet no ditect evidence for the existence of Dravidian outside the subcontinent! nor for its curency in the north otber than that afforded by Brabtl. The Moheojo-daro seals are not yet reed, nor is theic language or its structures identified for certain. However, we ean look back a litle further than 200 .c., a possible date for south Indian megalithic eulture, for definite record of Dravidian; this is pro vided by the south Indian Bratt inseriptious mentioned earlier, and these date fom the third century ».c. The ist ofthe seventy-six known inscriptions was discovered by Venkoba Rao in 1903 some 23 miles north-east of Madurai ‘hero are in addition twenty short graft in the same script on pottery from Aikkamedu, aa important site on the east coast of Tamilnadu, excavated by ‘Wheeler in 1945 andl by othets since, The first certain identification of their language as being Old Tamil was made by K. V. Subrahmanya Ayyar and presented by him at the Third All-Indis Oxeatel Conference, hel in Madras Jn 1924.4 The most important and recent work on these insriptions is that of [. Mahadevan and R. Panneerselvar.! They show that the inscriptions con~ ficm eeclain kings and place-names ineationed ia the earliest extant Temil literature, of roughly the same date. Mahadevan's brilliant work demonstrates that, as early as the third to second centuries 0.¢., the main modifications to the “All-India” syllabary of 36 consonants and 10 vowels plus diphthongs had been made fo equip the Script suitably for waiting, Tarail: the consonants had been reduced to 18, by the removal of letters forthe voiced plosives, asptated plosives, and siilaats, and by the addition of characters to sepreseat Tamil retroflex and f and alveolar r and 2. As for vowels, these were reduced to 9 by the omission of the diphthoog au, the-existence in Tamil of separate short é and & not being recognized inthis script (or until the tire of Beschi in the eighteenth eeatury). Mahadevan established an important phenomenon in these inscriptions, the use of the character for medial d to represent medial a also, the vowel con- sidered inberent in all consooaats in all other Tudian scripts and in those in jouth-Hast Asia developed from thea. Thus there was no need for a “killer” symbol to remove this inkereat vowel, such as the virdna in Sanskrit, and "¥, Gordon Childe, "Meraliths fa Aucten Idi, 4 (1967-8). The antiquity end imme tance ofthe sea fn: between southera penlsularfadin aud the Middle Bast end ater, ‘inthe Middle Ens, with the Romen Expire) exonat be exapgerated "9 Comparable, for exsepe, withthe close antes with Vee Sansket of Old Iranian, both inguisticaly ad in subject. matter of hyo "See Proceedings thereof, Np. 275-200. See R. Panneerscham, *An Important Brahmi Tamil Inscription’ in Procedings ofthe Firat terion ConforencesSeminar of Tel Suudles, Koala Lumpur, ATR. 1968, nd 1. Mahadevan, "Teal Brali Tscriptions of the Sangam Age" In Proceedings ofthe Second Iucernatonal Conference-Semiaor of Tail Statics, Madias, ATR 1971-34 The Early Dravidians Mahadevan js able in consequence to read the hitherto-batfing kéla(nser.29), na (inser, 13), and maylya (inset. 72) a8 correet Tamil kal, makan, aed ‘ani. Ta effec, the early Tamil Brahm? inscriptions show s leer syetem gomparable to ou own alphabet, rather than a sylabary; thus the other “All India’ development of conjunct consonants for sueh sounds es kya, ra, of ‘iva was rendered unnecessary. Mabadevan convincingly suggests thatthe absence of the (available) voiced plosive characters from this seript means ‘that Tamil at this tage did not have the voiced intervocalic plosive phonemes {hat are one of its principal modern features (though one sil unenteced for ia the seripp, Jn addition to their linguist interest, these inscriptions have helped corro- borate some of the royal names occurting in early Tamil praise-poetiy, ns just noted. One king mentioned is Ko drop Cora)! Inumpitat(inses, 56 and 57), and from one of the earliest collections of Ta:nl poets, Padizuppatius an Anthology of praise-poems on the Seral kings, we know of wo With the fille of "He of the grest raouatain’, Jrumpdrai.2 More important perhaps is the fact that Pagel, where these two inscriptions were found, is about ten miles feom the modem Karr, mentioned in the form Karur inthe same cavern (inser. 66). We know from Ptolemy that Karourn wes “the royal seat of Ketobothtos""! and several references in the colopions to carly ‘Tetail poetns indicate that Karavi was a Seral royal town,'* usideration of these inscriptions has led us, then, to a discussion of the cavlest Tamil literature with which much of the remainder of ths essey will be concerned, as it represents probably the most important single eontibu- tion of Dravidian language and culture to the Indian heritage, The bulk of ft contained in Bight Anthologies (Bitttogai) wio being of bards poetry, and six of courtly love-poemis (hough one, Paral, includes religious praise Pociry and descriptive verse also). On the basis of internal evidence most of {these anthology-poems have been assigned to the fist three centuries of out frm, and it looks as if the epigraphical evidence now to hand confirms this. While it is clear that 2 good deal of synthesis with Indo-Asyen, especially Beibmanicel, cultural and linguistic elements from the north had. already taken place, these poems yet present a distinet culture, one in which attitudes and values come across (0 usin a very vivid and fresh manner, For its part, the literature i simple and dizect in appeal, and relatively free ofthe obscurity and sophistication of niuch later Indian literature, including that of Temi itself, Unlike the near-totaity of medieval literatures in the south, these poems are secular, The praise-poetry is quite unlike anything else extant fa the south, At the same time, a ‘grammar’, Tolkippipam, patls of which are probably contemporancous, sets out an elaborate rhetoric for bardic and love-poetry that is quite untike other Indian literary theories which have thelr origins in Sanskrit rhetoric, in which the needs of drama played a large part. ‘While it i true tha, ia Tamil courlly love-poctry, there are ‘dramatie pers sonae’, stock cheracterssuch as the hero, beroine,fosler-mother, and 20 0m 1 Ths contrast comparable to thal between Spanish itervocalis (lays uswotced) on the one hand and thet of Portoguess or Halla oo the othe. "See Panneerielvam,op.cit pp. 422-4,. ® MeCtindle, Ancient Dd, Vol. "See further, Mahadevan, op. Sits po 94-5. The Early Dravidians 35 ‘Natural Tamil’ (/yerramif), the name given to poetry, as opposed to ‘Drama. Agam, five aspects of love are involved: union, separation, awaiting (the re- tothwarane ign Seve hoon kel bedeied seston votes auch of tis religious verse jn praise of Tirumal (Vishnu) and Sevvel (Skanda). ‘through Madurai, the capital of the Pandiyar, another Tamil ‘ dynasty’. Sond Speers oy Tobe 8 pram bo eneaone36 The Early Dravidians drank a great draught of the iquor that bestows joy, her eyes sboue like honey- A recent taneation s by Alain Darou. The Early Dravidions 3 ‘The sequel to this story, Manimegalal, need not detain us, It is largely 2 ‘Buddhist work, inspired by the logical sjstem pf the philosopher Dinaaga, and demonstrates the extent to which, by the time of its composition, Tami bad become influenced by external factors. Much of its later literature, and all of the extant literatures of Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam, the other three main Dravidian languages, consists of the reworking of themes origi ally prescated in Sanskrit. They are none the less important for this, but it b> omies ess easy to quantify the purely Dravidian element in them,” By reason of the fact that these four were, and ave, spoken as well as written languages, there is an clement of the popaiar and spontancous in their fiter- atures that may seem to be absent from some Sanskrit writing, But this feature they of course share with Indo-Aryan vernaculats such as Marathi and ul. Thus the Tamil version of the epic Ramdyana presents the hero Rama 1 a god, and to that extent isa religious poem, unlike its Sanskrit prototype. But this feature is common to all the vernacular Rama stories, in India and in South-East Asia ‘One must in conclusion note that the great medieval bhakt? movement, ex- pressing itself in hymns and mystical utterances in all the spoken languages of India, had its ceal beginnings io the Tamil Saivite bymos composed from the sixth century onwards, and collectively knowa as the Tirunurai, The most Samous portion is the Garland of God, Teudran, but the mystical poems by ‘Manikkkavaéagar, Tirwoagagam and Tinnkkovalyar, should be mentioned. The figure of the divine lover and his beloved, the soul, becomes common enough in medieval India, especially in the worship of Krishoa, But Manikkava- sagar’s Tirukkovalydr antedates this to a considerable extent. The Viraéaiva, Vacanakavyas of Basava were, in Kannada, an extension of this gente, Similarly, the medieval philosophical texts of the Saiva Siddhdnea were popularized through Tamit and, with the digest of moralistic treatises known a Tirukkural, were hailed by eatly Bucopean missionary-scholars as the finest literary work produced in the south, But it is dificult to avoid the conclusion that, in this coseate view, they were influenced by the apparent closeness of many of the concepts in Tirukkural and in, say, Sivandnabodan to those of Christianity. ‘The Tamils brought to these subjects an original and fresh approach, but ia their anthology-poems they were themselyes the originators, 9" By Meykandadorar. The pracpal Siva Siddhgnta work fa TalCHAPTER V Asokan India and the Gupta Age by ROMILA THAPAR ‘ASoxan India and the Gupta age ate the terminal points of & span of one thousand years, from the fourth century b.c. to the sixth century A.D. The span extends over a period of considerable historical change; yet itis possible to perceive an undetlying continuity. The erigin of institutions which were to mould Indian culture is frequently traceable to this period, The ASokan age .w the establishment of a centralized imperial structure which embraced most the entire subcontinent and rested on # methodically organized and ‘efficient bureaucracy. This was the first time that the imperial ides found ex- pression in India. In the subsequent period the personality of Indie acquired ‘ew contours and delineations which were both the result of an imperial system and the foreshadowing of other patterns. The Gupta age, for a briet period, came close in spit to the government of the Mauryas, but it exrried the seeds of a ew political system—the early stages ofa feudal-type organiza- tion—which was not conducive to empire building. The Gupta age is better remembered as the age which saw the triumph of Sanskritic culture in many parts of the subcontinent, CChandragupta Maurya conquered Magadha (south Bihar) and in 321 n.c. founded the Mauryan Dynasty with his capital at Pafeliputra (in the vicinity ‘of modern Patna). He proceeded to-annex Various parts of northern India and ‘campaigned against the Greek, Seleucus Nicator, the former general of ‘Alexander. The successful outcome of this campaign brought him the trans- Indus region and areas of Afghanistan, His son, Bindusira, continued the ‘campaign into peninsular India. But it was his grandson Agoka who, inherit- {ng the subcontinent, established an all-india empire and diseovered both the advantages and problems inherent in such a political structure. “The mechanics of a centralized empire came into existence after a lengthy ‘germination involving the life and deathof numerous kingdoms and republics in northern Indie from the sixth century n.c. onwards. Perhaps the earliest aglimmesings of empire were visible to the Nandas, the dynasty which immedi ately preceded the Mauryos, though the actual birth of empire had to wait until the arrival ofthe latter, ASoka inherited an efficiently running machine domin- ‘ated by a central administration, The imperial structure was provided with a ‘base through the spread and establishment of an agrarian economy. In later centuries, ia spite of the contribution of other types of economic activity such as internal and overseas trade, agriculture remained the dominant factor in the economy, with these other activities providing substantial but subsidiary in- ‘Land revenue had been recognized as a major sourceof state income before the Mauryas, The proverbiel wealth of the Nandas was doubtless due to their efficient collection of revenue from the fertile middle Ganga plain. That the Afokan India and the Gupta Age 39 legitimacy of taxation tiad been established by the time of the Mauryas and its potentiality in terms of income recognized, is evident from the references to lend reveaue and taxes in Kautalya’s drthasstra and x significant reference in the inscriptions of Agoka.* According to the Arthaédsira every activity, from agriculture to gambling and prostitution, might be subjected to taxation by the state, No waste land should be oceupied nor a single tree cut down in the forest without permission from the state, since these were all ultimately sources of revenue, It was conceded thet the main item of income was land revenue and this was dependent on correct assessment and proper collection. But other activities had also to be controlled and supervised by the state so that they would yield che maximum revenue, Al this necessitated a carefully worked out bureaucratic system, and from descriptions of administration in Mauryan sources this seems to have been achieved. Practically every professional and skilled person was registered and ‘was under the ultimate contcol of @ superintendent. The officers were very well paid, in the belie that « well-paid bureaucracy was likely to be more ficient, High salaries could be maintained only if taxes were rigorously collected. Thus the two factors of taxation and administration wece inter Jinked ‘These two factors had a bearing on yet another factor: the army and its role in the politics and economy of the Mauryan period, A large army was not ‘only essential fo vast conquest, it was equally important as a means of hold- {ng the empire together. Mauryan rulers were awace of this, The estimated strength of Chandragupta’s army, according to near-contemporary classical sourees, was 9,060 elephants, 30,000 cavalry, and 600,000 infantry. Even allowing far a margin of exaggeration in these igures the Mauryan army was ‘large one by any standards, To maintain such aa army would require a large state income, and this in turn would depend on taxation and the size of the kingdom. Thus it was the interdependence of texation, edministration, and armed strength which went into the making of a centralized em Control over these factors Iay with the king, who was regarded as the suprenie source of power and authority. This enabled the king to adopt 8 paternalistic attitude towards his subjects, ax is evident from ASoka’s edicts, Where be says, “All men are my children and just as I desie for my children that they should obtain welfere and happiness both ia this world and the next, the same do T desice for all men ...'* Or as, when referring to his officers in the rural areas, he writes, “Just as one entrusts ones eld to an experienced burse, and is confident that the experienced nurse is able to caze for the child satisfuctorily, so my raiukas have been appointed for the welfare and happi- ‘ess of the country people. ."8 Paternalism demands a co ued contact between king and subjects, The + Kaulalya, alematively known as Kautitya and Chinakya, was the chief minster of Chandeagupta Matsya and a work on pollzal economy, the srhatdire, salto to him In is present form the work has been dated by teholars tothe second and third cen lures Ao. Bu pats ofc appeae to reflect notions Which weréGrzent inthe administrative system of the Mauryas, With regard to land revende, itis sgnieant that, on visting Eambiol, Afoka ordeed a reduction in land vevenuo a a faveuc tothe Bithplace of the Budd’ This is clear indization of the importaace of such reveaie to the Mauryan polliealandesonomicsysiem. Second Separate Rock Edit, > Fourth illar Edt,4 Asokan Indla and he Gupta Age ‘Mauryan kings, we are told, were always available for consultation. Mezas- thenes, who visited India as the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator and stayed ai the Mauryan Court during the reign of Chandragupta, describes the king receiving complaints and discussing matters of state even when being mi saged. Asoka emphatically declares in one of his edicts that, no matter where hhe may be, n0 member of the ministerial couacil should be debarred from seeing hi, “ut the availability of the king was not sufficient, Ina system as centralized as that of the Mauiryas it was essential that communication be maintained ‘vith all parts of the subcontinent and with every level of society. This was Gone in part by building @ network of roads linking the entire empire with Pajatiputra, Agoke's justified pride in the excellence of the roads which he had constructed is corroborated by Pliny the Elder's enthusiasm in describing the Royal Highway which raa from Taxila to Pafaliputra, a distance of over @ thousand miles. ‘At another level, contact with the populace was maintained through the use of agents and informants, These were used both to propagate the ideas of the king and to bring him reports on public opinion.‘ Frequent tours and the appointment of specially trusted inspectors were other means of communica tion with the people, “Although agriculture provided the most substantial part of the state income it was not the sole source of revenue. An inditect source of inoome for the Mauryan state was the use of the éidras, the lowest of the four orders of Hindu society, as free labour when so required. The settlement of new areas, the opening of waste land to agriculture, the working of the state-owned mines such as the salt mines of the Panjab and the iron ore deposits ia Magadba, vere some of the activities for which Sidras, in addition to prisoners of war and criminals, provided labour power. “Among the more significant changes which had taken place by the middle of the first millennium ».c, was the development of towns and urban culture, ‘The coming of Aryan culture, based on pastoralism and agearian village com- munities, resulted in the entire process of development from village culturesto urban cultures being re-experienced in northera India. Towns evolved from trade centres aad eraft villages, and consequently the dominant institution of urban life was the guild, By the end of the fourth century p.c. artisan and merchant guilds vere an established part of the urban pattern. "The manufacture of goods and trade formed additional sources of income in a tax-oriented system. Not surprisingly the Arthafdstra fists a number of {axes on goods at various stages of production and distcibution. ‘Ihe existence of an all-India empire undec a single political authority and the excellent communications developed within the subcontinent fed to an expansion in internal trade which added to the growing profits of the guilds. Ventures in overseas trade were doubiless encouraged by the protection of diplomatic missions cent by the Mauryan emperors, The exchange of envoys between the Greek kings of western Asia end Egypt and the Mauryas is on record, as also “A similar system was adopted bythe Achaemenid kings of Persia, where the inspectors wore called “ihe king's eye? and “the kegs ear, and ao by Charlemagne, in whose King ‘dom they were know a the sh ASokan India and che Gupta Age a the curious request for gifts such as sophiss, singing boys, and wine. The close and ftieadly es between ASoka and Tissa, the king of Ceylon, must have re- sulted in greater communication between the tWo countries, ‘The improved economic status of the guilds introduced complications ia the existing social pattern. Guild leaders became powerful citizens controlling large economic assets, But, in the caste-based society of this period, the trader co the artisan was not included among the most socially privileged citizens, ‘The challenge which the mercantile community preseated to the more cstab- lished sections of society was yet to come, but the germinal tensions came into beeing at this stage, That there was an element of fear on the part of the authorities of the growing power of the guilds secms evident from the Arthaséstra, which favours a rigid conteol of guild activities. Por instance every guild had to be segistered wilh the local administration and no guild was allowed to move from its location without prior permission, ‘There was yet another factor which possibly aggravated social tensions. The vo new religions, Buddhism and Jainism, had won the sympathy of the artisans and the merchants; and these religions were heterodox sects which challenged the established ‘order. ‘The association of the emergent urban ‘groups with dissident thinking and practice would make them suspect in the ‘eyes of the orthodox, ‘These new religions sprang from a considerable intellectual ferment which 1 had begun earlier inthe period, around 600%. A healthy rivalry wasapparent among a number of sects, such as the Charvakas, Jainas, and Ajivikas, whose doctrines ranged from pure materialism to determinism, ‘This intellectual liveliness was reflected in the eclectic interests of the Mauryan rules, since it wwas claimed by the Jainas that Cuandragupta was a supporter and there is evidence that Bindusira favoured the Ajvikas, Close contacts with western Asia must have provided yet another stream of unorthodox ideas. ‘This then was the empire which ASoka inherited. In ares a subcontinent, inhabited by peoples of many cultures and at many levels of development; & society with a wide range of customs, belief, affinities, antagonisms, tensions, and harmonies. Magadba and the westera Ganga valley were culturally Acyanized bat the fringes of this area were less s0. The north was in close con- tact with the Hellenized culture of A fghavisten and Iran; the far south was on the threshold of the ereative eMlorescence of Tamil culture. To rule such an empire successfully would have required the pereeption and the imagination ‘of an exceptionally gifted man, This was the challenge which ASoka attempted to meet. For many centuries Asoka remained almost uaknoven to the Indian histori- cal tradition. He was mentioned in the genealogies of the Mauryan kings but nothing more than the length of his reign was stated ‘bout him. A vast amount of semichistorical, largely legeadary, material on his life had been collected in Buddhist sources but this material practically disappeared from the Indian tradition with the decline of Buddhism in India by the end of the thirtecoth century. It was preserved in Buddhist centres outside Iadia—in Ceylon, Central Asia, and China. The proclamations issued by Agoka were engraved on rocks and pillars throughout the subcontinent and these. re- mained visible, but unfortunately the Britt seript ia which they had been2 Abokan India and the Gupta Age engraved had become archaic and the inscriptions could not be read.s How- ‘ever, in 1837 the Orientalist James Prinsep deciphered the script, Although the ‘text was now kaowa, the author of the inscriptions could not be identified, since he was generally referred to only by his titles Devanampiya Piyadassi— ‘The Beloved of the Gods, of Gracious Mien—and these were unknown to the Indian king-ists, A tentative identification with ASoka was made in the late ineteenth century on the evidence from the Buddhist chronicles of Ceylon. twas not until 1915 that this identification was confirmed, however, with the discovery of an inscription which referred to the author as Devanampiye Asoka ‘The association of this name with Buddhist sources led to his ediets being interpreted almost as Buddhist documents. Undoubtedly Aéoka was a Buddhist and much of the ideology of Dianna? which he enunciated was i spired by Buddhism, But to equate it totally with Buddhism and to suggest that Afoka was propagating Buddhiem as the state religion is to read more into the edicts than was intended by the monarch, A careful analysis of thei scriptions reveals that they were of tivo categories, Some were addressed specifically to the Buddhist Church or Sangha and were concerned entirely vith matters relating to the Sangha. The majority ofthe inscriptions are. how- ever, addressed to the public at large and deal with questions of wider interest, eis significant that iti in this second category of inscriptions that the king expounds his ideas on Dhamma. : Ttwould appear that Agoke aimed at creating an attitude of mind among his subjects in which social beliaviour had the highest relevance. In the context of conditions during the Mauryan period, this ideology of Dhamma may have been viewed as a focus of loyalty and as. point of convergence for the existing diversities of people and activities, Dhamma stressed toleration, non-violence. (where the emperor himself forswore violence and foros us means to an end), respect for those in positions of authority, including both the brilymans and the Buddhist monks, consideration and kindness towards inferio general acceptance of ideals conducive to hnuman dignity. The king i saspecial class of officers—the oflicers of Dhiamma—vho were respon the propagation of this ideology and who worked for the general welfare of the people. Yet the ideology of Dhamma died witk the death of the emperor. As an attempt to solve the problems of the time it was perhaps too ideelistic. At the same time it can hardly be described as a revolutionary doctrine, singe it was largely an emphatic reiteration of certain existing principles of ethics. But ‘edit must be given to the man who had the vision to seek such a solution and the courage to attempt it Fifty years after the death of Agoks the Mauryan Empire had declined. + Opie ofthe sultans of Dei fa the fourteenth century, Fizz Shih Tupug, was both incgued ad inpresed by an Adokan pillar which he found near Delhiy and he had it removed to ble capital But no one could read the isciption on the pillar or expla ie purpose. Minor Rosk Rie at Mask: deadnanpiyasra Asoka. "Tihs ward dhemma le the Pal orm of the Sonskrit hrm a 5 almost posible to translate adequately into English Generally accepied renderings ate ‘morality, ley, vse, the social order Asokan India and the Gupta Age a that his pro-Buddhist sympathies led to a brilimanical revolt neaiant the of the Mauryas in the Ganga heart-land, Magadha, were the Sungas, a brah- man family which had usurped the throne at Pataliputra. The Sungas were to and north-western India, left behind a number ‘of governors, who on his death“4 Agokan Tndia and the Gupta Age Further south the Parthians made a brief thrust in the region of Sind, but could not maintain their power there for long. Events in Central Asia were ‘now to influence north Lodien politics. A nomadic movement originating on the borders of China made the Yieh-chib tribe migrate westwards to the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, dislodging the existing inbabitants of this region, the Sakes (Seythians). Further migrations brought both the Sakas and the Yteh-chih to India. The early decades of the first century A.D. sew the: Yueb-chihgetted in northern India and the Sakas concentrated inthe region of Kutch and Kathiawvar in western India, The Sakes were now neighbours of the Satavahana or Andhra kings, who had established a kingdom centred around the north-western ares of the Deccan plateaa. Ta time the Saka: found themselves sandwiched between two important powers, for in the north the ‘Yiieh-chib or Kushéna kingdom had been consolidated by Kanishka, who not only extended its southern and eastern boundaries as far as Mathura and Varanasi, but also participated in eampaigos in Central Asi* To the south of the Saks, the Sitavibanas drew their strength from the fact that they were 2 bridge between the northern and southern parts of the subcontinert, This characteristic of the Decean kingdoms, deriving their power from the rloca- tion, was to remain an important geo-political facior in Indian bistory for avy centuries. ‘Tbe history of south India emerges in clearer perspective during the period between 200 2.C. and A.0. 300, the evidence being that of archaeology, epi- aeaphy, and the Sangany literature of the-early Tamils. The extreme south of the peninsula, Mysore and beyond, had not been under actual Maueyan con- ol, though the relationship between the imperial power and the southern ingdoms was a ctose and friendly one. This is revealed by ASoka’s references, tobis neighbours in the south, the Kingdoms of the Cholas, Pandyas, Kerala~ pputeas, and Sstiyaputras, some of which are also meationed in the Sangam erature, Archaeology provides evidence of a well-organized mesalithic culture in this region during the Mauryan period, Possibly it was in zontact ‘with a similar culture in western Asia, a contact which had its antecedents and ‘which continued in later centuries. ‘The anthologies of Tamil poetty contain among other things des:riptive partations of events, both actual and imagined, in the context of early tribal sosioty in south India. Conflicts among the kingdoms were perpetual, because each bad two objectives—to control the fertile delta, the only regions where Agriculture was possible on a large seale, and to have access to the important trading stations along the coasts which were lucrative sources of revenue, since many of them traded with the Yavanas, the peoples of western Asia.? "The fragmentation of the subcontinent which took place during this period may have been politically emasculating, but it was at this time that a new and Vital interest came to bs introduced into cconomic development. It was the age when India discovered the potential wealth inherent in trade, Despite the "infact the prestige of Kealehka is such thatthe inauguration ofthe much-wsed Saki era of ab. 78 frequetlyalebated Yo him. His date x vey uocetio, however, and reat ‘simaies vary elven thi ate ad heir ceatury a. * Yasono, aback formation fom the Pearit ord Yo, is blived torte rial to Ionian Gretis and came to be uted for any of the tading peoples of western asia—ibe Greeks, the Romans ad fn ace centuries the Arabs Afokan India and the Gupta Age 45 many political frontiers, internal trade increased very considerably. The ‘woollen blankets of Gandara and the linen of Bengal were familie to all parts of the country, as were the precious stones from south India, But even more relevant (0 the economic prosperity of India was the overseas trade. Indian traders ventured out in all ditections: to Central Asia and China, to west Asia, and in South-East Asia as far es the kingdom of Funan in modern Vietnam. Indian merchants became the middlemen in the commeres between South-East Asia and the Mediterranean, They were the entrepreneurs in the trade supplying the needs and luxuries of the Graeco-Roman world, 2 topic ‘which is dealt with elsewhere (ch, 13%) in this book, ‘This increase in trade resulted quite naturally in the greater prosperity of the guilds. Guilds became not only the basis for the production and distribu- tion of merchandise but also the financial centres of trade. The Sitavabana rulers, for instance, often gave to religious charities donations which came from money invested with guilds. The intensification of the guild system in fluenced sub-caste relations within caste society, for each guild tended to be- come a sub-caste drawing on its own resources for manpower. Thus even in ‘urban areas the economic basis of the organization of caste society became firmer. With the accumulation of wealth in the bands of guilds and merchants, patronage of learning and the arts was no longer limited torroyalty, Not sur- Prisingly, some of the most magoificent Buddhist monuments are of this period and many of them ove their existence to the donations of wealthy guilds and merchants, The stipas at Sauchi, Bhirhut, and Amardvatt stand witness to this, ‘Together with Indian traders weat the bribmans and the Buddhist mis sionaries. Western Asia came into contact with them in the centuries before Christ, China received its fist Buddhist mission in .0. 68 at Loyang. In the carly centuries after Christ, Buddhists were active in Fusan and Champa, ‘Meanwhile Buddhism itself bad undergone a considerable change, with docttival differences creating a split which was formally recognized at the Fourth Buddhist Council, held according to tradition during the reign of Kanishka; and two groups of Buddhists were established, the Mahayana and the Hinaydna. Missionaries of Mabiyina sects established themselves in Centra Asia, China, and Japan. Hinayina Buddhism was more popular in Ceylon, and later it ousted the Mahayana in South-East As th increasing contact through commerce between the various parts of the Koown world, the communication of ideas between these regions improved, For instance, Indian astronomers discovered the existence of Graeco-Roman astronomy: Graeco-Roman art, particularly of the Alexandrian variety, not ‘only found admirers in north-western India and Afghanistan but became the model for a hybrid local school which art-historians bave subsequently called Gandhara art, Yet another result was the arrival of Christian teaching in India, which according to the legends care in the mid-first centiry A.D. brought by St. Thomas. ‘The political fragmentation of the subcontineat did not put an end to the dream of an empire as vast as that of the Mauryas. An attempt was made by kings of the Gupta family to establish such an empire in the early part of the Fourth century A.D.6 Asokan India and the Gupta Age ‘The Guptis were in origin probably a family of wealthy landowners who gradually attained both economic power and politcal status. Unlike the founder of the Mauryan Dynasty, who is described as an adventurous young san with no significant aniecedents, the founder of the Gupta Dynasty, also called Chandra Gupta, belonged to a family which had established its power at # local Iovelin Magadba, A judicious marriage with a Licchayi princess agave him additional prestige, the Licchavis claiming a long-established re- spectabilty. Following his coronation as kiog of Magadha in A.D. 319-20 Chandra Gupta took the tile of maharajadhiraja—Great King of Kings. Tm about AD. 335 bis son, Samudea Gupla, inbected the kingdom of Magadh, He issued a series of beautifully exccuied god eoins in which be is depicted both as x congueror and as « musician, a strange combination of interests, Fortunately for later historians a lengthy panegyric on him was composed by ove of his high officials and engraved on an Agokan pillar which hiss since been brought to Allahabad, ‘The inscription refers among other things to the martia) exploits of Samudea Gupta; to the kings uprooted and the territory annexed in the northeen part of the subcontinent. It mentions also the long march which Samudra Gupta undertook in the south, reaching as ‘fac as Kanchipuram, Nor are the tributes from foreign kingdoms omit- ted, Mention is made of the Sakas, Ceylon, various Iranian ralers of the north-west and the inhabitants of all the islands. The latter may refec to Indian trading stations on the ishinds of South-East Asia and in the Indian ‘The nucleus of the Gupta kingdom, as of the Mauryan Empire, was the Ganga heactland, This and the adjoining tesitory to the west Were the only regions over which Samudra Gupta had absolute and unchallenged control. Gupta control of the Decean was unceriain and had to be propped up with a matrimonial alliance, s Gupta princess marrying a prince of the Vakitaka Dynasty of the Decedn, the successors to the Sitevahana power. This seeured a friendly southeca frontier for the Guptas, which was necessary to Samudra upta’s successor, Chandra Gupta 1, when he led a campaign agninst the Soka in western India, ‘t was ducing the reign of Chandra Gupta IL that Gupta ascendancy was at its peak, His successful campaign ageinst the Sakas, resulting in the annexa- tion of western India, wes, however, not his only acbievement. Like his pre- decestor, he was a patron of poets, philosophers, scientists, musicians, ané sculptors, This period saw the erystalization of what came to be the classical norma in ancient India ‘on both the politcal andthe evitural level. The Gupta kings took exalted titles such 22 mahardjadhirdja paramabhet- araka—Greet Kingol Kings, the Supreme Lord, This was n striking contrast to the Mauryas who, though politically far more powerful, never used such exalted titles. Superficilly Gupta administration Was similar (0 that of the ‘Mouryss. The king was the highest authority and the kingdom was divided into a bierarchy of administrative units—proviness, distriets, and groups of Villages-each with jis own range of oficers responsible to the most senior ‘officer in the uot, Yet theze was a significant difference between Gupta and Mauryan adminisiration: during the Gupta period these was far greater stress joeal administration and far less diet control from the centre. Even in Asokan india and the Gupta Age a urban administration, the City Boards consisted of representatives of local opinion and interest (such as the heads of guilds and artisan and merchant, bodies) rather than officers of state. ‘A parallel tendency was developing in the agrarian system, particularly in the sphere of land revenue. The revenue was still collected by the king's officers, but they retained a certain predetermined percentage in liew of a regular eash salary. This procedure of payment to officers came to be adopted with increasing frequency. On occasion the king would even grant the reveaue from an area of land ora villogt to non-official, such as brahmans renowned for their learning. Inscriptions recording such’ grants are known from the early centuries A.D. onwards. Since a major part of the state revenue came from the land, grants of revenue were gradually to cause @ radical change in the agrarian sjstem. Although it wus the revenue alone which was granted, it ‘beeame customary {o treat the and itself ss part of the grant. Technicelly the could resume the grant, but in fect he seldom did 50. The lessening of central control in any case Weakened the authority of the king and empha- sized local independence, an emphasis which increased in times of political trouble. The reeipient ofthe grant came to-be regarded as the lord ofthe land and the local patron, and he attracted local loyalty towards himself, The more obvious shift in emphasis from central to local power took place later, but its origin can be traced to the Gupta period. However, the more forceful of the Gupta kings still kept authority in their hands and continued to be regarded as the lords of the land par excellence. Patronage requires the easy availability of money, and the Gupta kings had the financial wherewithal to be patrons on a lavish scale. The steady stream of revenue from the land was augmented by income from commercial activity. Tndian trading stations were dotted throughout the islands of South-East Asia, Malaysia, Cambodia, snd Thailand. The gradual acceptance of many features of Indian culture in these areas must doubtless have been facilitated ‘by activities such as commerce. Indian merchants carried spices from Java to Socotra or were busy participating in the tade between China and the Mediterranean lands via the Central Asian ‘Silk Route’, not fo mention the fncreasing trade within the subcontinent itself, Goods Were transported by pack animals and ox-drawn certs, and by walee whea rivers were navigable. ‘The literature of the period is replete with deseriptions of the marvels and wonders witnessed by sailors and merchants in distant lands, There are frequent references to rich financiers and wealthy guilds, The tentile guilds hnad a vast market, both domestic and foreign. Ivory-workers, stone-workers, rmetal-workers, and jewellers all prospered in the economic boom, Spices, pepper, sandalwood, pearls, previous stones, perfume, indigo, herbs, and textiles were exported in large. quantities. Araongst the more iucrative im ports were silk from China and horses from Central Asia and Arabia of the wealth of merchants and princes was dooated to religious ‘causes| Large endowments hed made the Buddhist Church extremely power ful, andi provided comfortable if not luxurious living for many Buddhist monks in the more impostant monasteries. These eivdowments enabled the ‘monasteries to own land and to employ labour to work it. The surplus income. fcom such sources was iavested in commercial enterprlses which at timas were48 Asokan India and the Gupta Age so success that monesteres could even aet at bankers, Monastic establish. ‘eats bail ia splendid isolation, ike the one at Ajant, were embellished with some of the most magnificent murals known to the ancient world. The growth of centees of Buddhist teaching led to devoted scholers spending many hours fn theology and philosophical speculation, thus sherpening th ineletial challenge which the Budbiste presented tothe brahmens, Hindu institutions and personalities were also the recipients of envisbly lavish pawtonage. There ate cefecences to donations of land or revenue from villages to leaned bréhmens and renowned priests, enabling them tnd the Families to lve in comfort for many generations, This was te age nbich sar attempts ot building small stone temples to Tiindy deities, temples which ‘vithin half a millennium were to become the dominant focuses of society in snany parts ofthe sibcontinent. Together with the temples came the carving ot jmages and the depiction of popular legeade in stone. Hinduism had by this time evolved from the beliefs of the Vedic period into a lnmane and sophisticated religion. Perhaps the most fundamental changes features which arose partly out ofthe heterodox challenge to sm. The fist of these was the tendency towards monotheism, twhich was stressed by the increasing worship of either of the two dei Vishnu and Siva. In addition the ritwal of worship sas also. changing in favour of pessonal devotion (bhakti rather than eacifie, Thus Hindu re vitaized ise and was able slowly to supplant the heterodox cligions. The lnekbmans, who regarded themsclvesas the interpreters of Hinduism, were ble coreunite the older texts to conform o their on vision of society, a evident from Purinie erature, and were able to convert popular eoculet meters) such as the O96 gpk, the Maldbht andthe mayor, ino steed Te was from these cultural roots that the classical norm evolved The language of bribmanism, Sanskit, became the language of erudition and sourt blerature, The works of KélidSsn exemplily the iaspired literary eraftsmanship of the period, The bribman genius for cessation was piven full vent, as is apparent from the careful categorizing of the divergent philo- sophieal schools. Compendin of scientific writings were produced and the slessieation of scientific knowledge led to many exciting results. Medical ‘snowldge began to travel west and aronsed the interest of west Asian physi Sians, Experienced metallurgists displayed theie skill in roiting besubiul coins, i the use of ion of such excellence that it defies reprodetion fain the famous Iron Pillar of Mehrauli), in metgl sculpture, and in copperplate charters. Indian mathematical Knowledge was probably the most advenced of its time, with the use of place aotation of numerals and familiarity with the concept of the cipher. Astronomy saw even more spectacular progress In 4.0. 499 Aryabheta calculated w 983-1416 and the length of the solar Year 38 365'958 days. He also postulated thatthe earth was a sphere rotating om is awn axis and revolving round the sun, and (bat the shadow ofthe earth falling on the moon caused eclpies, The works on astronomy ‘written by Verde bamniira show knowledge of Greck and Roman systems. “The advancement of Knowledge lay ia the hands of the bribmans “This had e advantage of intensifying the intelectual irdition within a small group of _Atokan India and the Gupta Age 4 society. Unfortunately however, owing to the evalution of the social pattern inancient India, this also led to intellectual constriction. Bripsan superiority ‘yas in part sustained by the maiatenance of cast¢ in Indian society. With the rewriting of early literatuce, especially legal fiterature, the division of society into castes was reiterated and the pre-eminent status of tbe brahman was emphasized. The result was a farly rigid ordering of society, in theory atleast Inaddition, the educational function was approptiated by the bréhmans, who, with the decline of the Buddhist monasteries in the post-Gupta period, be- ‘care the major purveyors of formal education in maay parts of the subcon- tinent, Technical knowledge was gradually relegated to the position of a craft tradition practised in the guilds. Formal education was to become entirely scholastic, resulting in intellectual in-growing Despite the theoretical rigidity of the caste system, the Sidras now had 2 somewhat more advantageous position than in the Mauryan period, doubt- less due to the decreasing need for establishing new setilements and clearing. ‘vaste land, But the position of the untouchables—those beyond the pale of ‘caste sociely—had declined considerably. Even accidental contact with an ‘untouchable by a high-ceste person was a source of great pollution and re- fuired ritual ablutions, a custom which mystified the Chinese Buddhist pil- grim Hstian Tsang when he visited India in the early seventh century. The Untouchables lived on the outskicts of tovens and villages and theirs were the Towlier and unclean occupations such as scavenging, keeping the cremation ‘grounds clean, and making leather goods. The village or the town itself, gener~ lly enclosed by a wall, was divided into sectors, each occupational group living and working in a particular area, Undoubtedly the finest parts of the town were those in which the main temple or the royal palace was situated ‘and the residential area of the wealthy merchants, landowners, and courtiers, Fabien, who was in India between A.D. 400 and 4t1, was favourably im- pressed by the prosperity of the people, more particularly the town-dwellers, ‘an impression which is borne out by archecological evidence. ‘One of the most interesting of the documents throwing ligit on the social mores of the well-to-do citizens is the Kmashtra, Better known as & manuat fon the art of love, it incidentally also depiets the young dilettante in his daily outine: a life given over to a certain relaxed comfort; devoted to poetry, music, painting, and sculptures and embellished with flowers, delicate per fuses, well-seasoned food, and other refiaements of gracious living. An even ‘more graphic documentation of life in the Gupta age is available from the vast, number of terracotta figurines and models of this period, ranging from toys ‘and representations of ladies and gentlemen of fashion, to cult images relat- ing to the more popular manifestations of religion. “The supremacy of Gupta power in northern India did not remain un- challenged, ‘The challenge came from the unexpected invasion of north ‘western India by a distinctly barbaric people, the Hmvas. The name is etymo- Iogically related to the late classical Hunai or Huns, but they were probably only remotely connected, if at all, with the barbarian hordes of Attila, The threat was felt during the reign’ of Chandra Gupta's son and successor Kumara Gupta (4.0. 415-34) when a tribe of Hnas, branching away from the ‘main Central Asian hordes, had settled in Bactria, and gradually moved over50 Afokon India and the Gupta Age the mountains into north-western Indie. Slowly the teickles became streams as the Hanas thrust further into India, The successor of Kumara Gupta, ‘Skanda Gupta (4.0. 454-67) had to bear the brunt of the Hana attacks, which were by now regular invasions, Gupta power weakened rapidly. By the eatly sixth century the Hong rulers Toramaaa and Mihirakula claimed the Panjab ‘and Kashmir as patt of their Kingdom, Once again northern India experienced migrations of people from Central Asia and Tran, and # pattern of readjustment followed. The coming of the Honas not only crested political disorder but also put into motion new currents whose momentum was felt for centuries to come, The migration of the Hinas and other Central Asian tribes accomapanying them and their settling in northern India resulted in displacements of population. This dis turbance led in turn fo changes in the caste structure, with the emergence of new sub-castes, The rise of many small kingdoms was also due to the general confusion prevalent during this period. ‘With the decline of the Guptas the northera half of the subcontinent splintered into warring kingdoms, each seeking to establish itself as a soves reign power. But, unlike the picture at the end of the Mauryan period, this sovereignty was to be based on a distinet regionalism which, though blurred | and confused at first, achieved clarity in Iter centuries, The successors of the Guptas attempted to reereate an empire, but the political fabric was such thet fan empire was no longer feasible, a possible exception being the Pratibara ingdom ia limited periods. The ability to,create large kingdoms and empires \oved south to the powers of the peninsula—tho kingdoms of the Deccan and the Tamil country. In the centuries that followed the Gupte period it was in the Kingdoms of the Chalukyas, Rashtrakatas, Pallavas, and Cholas that Indian civilization showed its greatest vitality CHAPTER VI Medieval Hindu India by ALL. Bastian ‘Tue Gupta Empice broke up and disappeared, By the middie of the sixth century a line of rulers with the same surname, but not connected in their official genealogy with the imperial line, ruled in Bihér and parts of Uttar Pradesh, The grest emperors of the fourth and filth centuries Were soon fo gotten, with the exception of Chandra Gupta II, who was remembered by his title Vikramaditya (in colloquial Hind Rajé Bikram) and the palmy days of whose reign passed. into folk tradition, Jn the second half of the sixth century a city on the Upper Gangi, before its confluence with the Jamuné, Kanyakubie (later known as Kanau)), rose to prominence as the capital of the Maukhari kings. The city of Sthanvigvara, now Thinesar, in the watershed between the Ganga avd the Indus, became the capital of rising femily of rulers descended from a certain Pushysbbit. Gujarat and Malwa were inthe power of the Maitraka Dynasty, founded by a several of the Guptas. In the Deccan the Chalukya Dynasty was gainin strengib, while in Tamilnadu the Dynasty of the Pallavas was also enlarging its boundaries. ‘This isthe pattern of Indian politics until the Muslim invasion. ‘There were generally five ot six main focuses of power throughout the subcontinent, with numerous lesser kingdoms, sometimes independent, sometimes tributary to fone ofthe greater rulers. Those corners of the subcontinent with well-defined natural frontiers, such as Kashmir, Nepal, Assam, Orissi, and Keralt, were Jess involved in the constant struggles for power, and their political life, though also often merked by local contlict, was rarely much affected by the constant strife in the great plains. ‘The usual system of government bore some resemblance tothe feudal system ‘of medieval western Furope. As the previous chapter has shown, the Mauryas lished a bureaueracy, and the Guptes revived some features of Mauryan ‘administration, though they allowed greater devolution of power, As the Guptas declined, provincial governors, whose posts were already often here~ ditary, took to calling themselves mahirdjes, and increasingly assumed the status of Kings, The typical larger kingdom of medieval times consisted of an area controlled directly from the capital city, and a number of provinces under hereditary sdmantas, «term loosely translated as “vassal, The more powerful ssamanias took regal titles and had subordinate chiefs who paid them homage and tribute, ‘These quasi-feudal conditions were encouraged by the political values of the times and given religious sanction in the epics and lswbooks. From the days of the Inter Vedas, when the tradition of the horse-sacrifice (aSoamedha) ‘began, warfare had beea looked on as good in itself, the natural occupation ofsa Medieval Hindu India the Kshatriya. Agoka’s voice, raised in favour of peace, had few echoes in succoeding centuries. Yet the traditional warfare of the Hindu king was mitigated by a chivalrous and humane ethical code, which discouraged such ruthless aspects of war as the sackiog of cities and the slaughter of prisoners ‘and non-combatants, Moreover the kshatriya ethic was averse to the complete annexation of a conquered kingdom, The righteous conqueror accepted the homage of the vanquished king, received tribuis, and replaced him on his throne as a vassal. If the conqueror ‘violently uprooted’ his enemies, as Samudra Gupta had done, it was believed that he might suffer for his ruthiess- ness in future lives, or even in the present one, Thus Hindu political ideology encouraged the ruler in bis efforts al empice building, but did not make for stable, long-lasting imperial systems, ‘The political history of India between the end of the Gupta Bnopire and the coming of the Muslims can be traced in some detail from thouseuds of in- scriptions which contain the genealogies and brief accounts of the reigns of Kings, and in the panegyries which form the preambles to records of land- grants, mostly to religious bodies—temples, monasteries, o groups of learned brifhmans. The piecing together of history from such sources is a fascinating intellectual exercise, and the specialist takes up his task with enthusiasm; but the general reader may find the dynastic history of early medieval India dull in the extreme, and there is 00 need to do more than summarize it here. A temporarily successful effort at empire building was made by Harsha or Harshavardhana (606-47), of tie Pushyabhati line of Sthanvivara, who ained control of Kanyakubja and made it kis capital. His reign is compar- atively well documented, thanks to his court post Bana and the Chinese pilgrim Histiaa Tsang, The former composed an account of his rise to power, ‘The Career of Harsha (Harshacharita), i ornate poetic prose, while the latter lefts lengthy account of his travels, Records of Wester Countries (Hls-yu chi), which tells us much about Harsha aud the general condition of India at the time, Harsha appears to have governed his empire according to the system which was by now traditional, through vassal kings and henchmen, resent bling the barons of medieval Europe, who might hold high offices at outt oF act a8 district of provincial governors, but who were also great landowners, and were virtually kings in their own domains. Harsha succeeded in maintain ing their loyalty and holding his loose empice together though the strength of his personality and his untiring energy. When he died, appareutly without heirs, his empire died with hits. ‘The succeeding period is very obscure and badly documented, but it marks the culmination of a process which had begun with the invasion ofthe Hunas J the last years ofthe Gupte Empie. The sinth and seventh centuries saw the Fise of many new dynasties, small and great, in the northerh part of the sub- continent. Few of these ruling families are to be found mentioned in sources, from periods before the Guptas, aud many of their genealogies begin with ames which do not seem Sanskritic. These people appear to haye bezn new- comers. Some of them may bave been related (0 the Hinas. A new people, who began to make their presence felt towards the end of the sixth century, the Gurjaras, gave their name to the present Gujarit and founded several im portant ruling dynasties, Since place-names containing a similar element can Medieval Hind fndia bo found as far to the north-west as Pakistan and Afghanistan, suggested that the Gurjaras entered India ia the wake of the Honas, ‘Their same has beon linked with that of the ancieat people of the south Russian steppes called Khazars, and with the Georgians (Gruz) of the Caucesus, Other obscure tribes of Central Asians may also havg followed the Hdnas, and wilder peoples from outlying areas may have profited from tho unsettled con- ditions to gain political contro! of important regions. In any case, new ruling houses arose in the post-Gupta period and many of theic names survive to the preseat day as those of the Rajput clans. ‘Towards the end of the cighth century three of the receatly arisen dynasties, contended for Kanyakubja, by tow the acknowledged metropolis of northern India, These were the Palas of Bibar and Bengal, the Rashtrakiitas of the Decean, and the Gurjara-Pratinaras, who controlled parts of Milwa and Rajasthan, ‘The great city was for a time occupied by the Palas, Whose Buddhist king Dharmapala drove up the Ganga valley and exacted tribute from many kings of the area, ‘The Rashtrakota Govinda II], whose policy of raiding the north, continued by his successors, was to have many repercus- sions, drove Dharmapala out, but was forced to return to his base owing to trouble at home. The vacuum was filled, very early in the ninth century, by ‘Nagabbata Il of the Gurjara-Pratihias. For about a hundred years the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Kanyakubje restored alittle of the glory of the earlier empires. Under their greatest kings, Mihira Bhoja (c. 836-90) and Matiendrapala (c. 890-9t0), they received tribute from rulers from Gujarat tothe borders of Bengal, and Muslim travellers were ‘muuch impressed by the peacefulness and prosperity of their quasi-feudal em- pire. But their old enemies, the fierce Rashtrakotas from the Deccan, were constantly worrying them, and in about 916 Kanyakubja was again tempor- aily occupied by Indra Il of the Rashtrakotas, whose lightning raids provided 2 foretaste of the similar attacks of the Marithas 800 years later. Indra TH soon returned to the south; but his effects were longer-lasting than those of previons Rashtrakcuta raiders. Though the Pratihdras returned to theit capital, they were humiliated and weakened, and their vassals ceased to re- spect them. Within a generation or two the greater vassals had thrown aside their allegiance, and were fighting with their former masters and among them- selves. It was in these circumstances that Mahmid of Ghazni, in the early years of the eleventh century, carried out his seventeen raids on Tndia; but ‘though the Turkish raiders ransacked and destroyed palaces and temples, and returned to their headquarters in Afghanistan with immense caravans of riches and slaves, India resumed her traditional political ways as if nothing hhad happened. ‘The Turks overwhelmed the Sabt kingdom, which had controlled a large area of the northwest, from Kabul to Labore, The rulers of this realm had also been ‘Turks, but Turks who had adopted Hindu traditions, and who offered no serious threat to their neighbours to the east. The Ghaznavids also conquered the Muslim Kingcloms of Sind, occupied by the Arabs early in the ighth century, whose chiefs had long ceased to trouble the Hindu kingdoms on their frontiers. Thus the Hindu slates of the Gangetic basin and Rajasthan now had on their borders @ young aggressive kingeom with new.raethods of54 Medieval Hindu India Warfare and with a religious ideology which might be expected to encourage aggression. ‘The most remarkable feature of the situation was that, as far as surviving. records show, nobody whatever in Hindu India recognized the menace of the ‘Turks. The Ghaznavids made a few further raids, but these were far less i pressive than those of Mahmud. The Turks were soon torn by internal strife ‘and, though they continued to hold the Panjib, it must have seemed to the ‘Hindu politicians of the time that, like the Arabs before them, they would be contained indefinitely. Having no real historical tradition, the Indian memory of earlier conquerors coming from the north-west—Greeks, Sakas, Kushinas, fand Hnas—yas so, vague that it was quite inefiectual a a warning to the rulers of the time. Inthe involved situation arising from Mabmtid’s raids, ive larger kingdoms shared most of northera India between them, the Chabaminas (Chauhins) of Rajasthin, the Gibadavalas (Gahrwals) ‘of Kanyakubja (Kanayj) and ‘Varanast (Bandtas), the Chaulukyas or Solinkis of Gujarat, the Paramdras | (Permars) of Malwé, and the Chandellas (Chandols) of Bundelkhand, to the south of the Gangé. These dynasties bore names which are among the best- known of the thirty-six Rajput clans. Theie kings had already aequired some- thing of the traditional Rajput character—gallant, extremely sensitive to points of honour, glorifying war, but war of a gentlemanly kind, intensely de~ Yoted to tradition, and quite incapable of serious co-operation one with an- other. The Palas, who governed Bihér and Bengal, had been quite untouched by Mahm@d’s invasions, Barly in the twelfth century they were replaced by the Sena Dynasty, which reversed the Palas’ traditional support of Buddhism and encouraged Hindu orthodoxy. They seem to have played little or no part in the polities of the western part of India, where the five major king doms and numerous lesser tributary realms fought honourably among the ‘themselves, basing their strategy and tactics on principles inherited from epics. In 1173 Gheani was captured by Ghiydis-ud-din, whose headquarters were Ghar in Afghanistan, From his new.capital Ghiyis-ud-din turned his atten« tion to India, His brother, Mubammad bin Sim, occupied the Panjab and de- posed the last ruler of the line of Mahmbd. Thea in 1191 Muhammad bin Sim attacked Prithviraj, king of the Chahamanas, the Hindu ruler on his eastern frontier, Prithvirija, fighting on his own ground with a larger army, defeated Mohammad at Tardin, and he retreated. In the following year, 1192, Muham- mad came again with stronger forces, and on the same field of Tardin Prithviraja lost the dayyand the Ganga valley was open to the invaders. Before the century was over Turkish control was established along the whole length of the sacred river. tis easy to suggest reasons why the Hindus were unable to resist the Turks, ‘and many such suggestions have been put forward. In dealing with the ques: tion it must be remembered that the invasion of the Turks was only one of ‘numerous attacks through the north-western passes which took place in his torical times. The Aryans, by a process not fully known to us, gained control of the Panjib from the decadent Harappans. The Acheemenians of Iran ‘occupied partatleast of the Indus valiey; Alexander's troops reached the Reis, § i j Medieval Hindu india 35 Dut were compelled to retreat; in the second century ».c. the Greeks ftom Bactria occupied the Panjab; they were followed in the next century by the Sukes or Soythians; in the first century 4.0. came the Kushanas, and ia the fifth the Honas, Maim0d’s raids in the early eleventh ceutury were precursors of the even stronger Turkish attacks of Muhammad bin Sim, which led to the prdtracted domination of most of India by Muslim rulers. ‘These were not by any means the last attacks from the north-west, however, Soon afier the Turkish occupation, Mongol hordes swept into India and Seeupied much of the territory west of the Indus. In 1398 Timi, the great ‘Mongol conqueror, sacked Delhi and raged through western India, eausing ffemendous carnage and destruction. In 1526 Babus the Mughal defeated the ‘Afghan rulers of Delhi and occupied the country. In 1555 his son, Humaydn, econquered it from his base in Afghanistan, During the eighteenth century Persians and Afghans raided India in turn, both sacking Delhi before retura~ iti to their homelands. “If'we examine all these conquests together it becomes clear that many fre- quently heard explanations of the failure of the defenders of India to resist invasion are facile generalizations, based on too few instances. Indian Muslims were hardly more successful at defending themselves against invation than Hindus, and the weakness of Indian armies in these circumstances cannot therefore be duc to the fact that the pacific Mindu i essentilly.a less competent soldier than the Muslim. Ifthe hillmen of Afghanistan and Iran aid the no- mads of Central Asia were tougher and stronger than the inhabitants of the subetropical riverine plains of northern Tndia, in all the battles the hillmen ‘Were greatly outnumbered by the plainsmen and the latter should have made lip in numbers for what they Ieeked in individual stamina, Moreover there is 10 evidence to show that the Hindu troops were essentially Tess courageous han the Mustims, though the former were perhaps more prone to-take te ‘Bight when their leader was killed. *"Some modern Indian historians are inclined to blame the caste system for ‘the Hindu débacle, which, they suggest, was brought about by the feet that inost Hindus were non-combatants, who felt no real sense of national patriotism but only loyalty to their caste brotherhoods, But Hindu armies never consisted only of kshatriyas, and all classes, including brabmans, could “fake part in war. Moreover to deplore the fact that the Hindus did not adopt ‘a scorched-earth policy against their attackers is tantamount to regretting that they did not share the nationalist values of the nineteenth and twentieth ‘centuries. The same is probably true of nearly every people of the period which we ace considering. In all the invasions which we have listed there tegms to be at least one common factor. The Indian armies were less mobile and more cumbrous, “archaic in their equipment and outmoded in their strategy, when compared with those of their attackers. The invaders generally had better horses and better-trained cavalry. They were not burdened by enot mous bodies of eamp- followers and supernumeraries, nor did they make use of the fighting ele~ phant, the courage of which in the fice of the enemy jvas unpredictable, but which Indian commanders, whether Hindu or Musliz, stem to have found fatally fascinating, OMen the invaders had new weapons which added greatly56 Medieval Hindu India to their effectiveness. The Aryans had the horse-drawn chariot, the Achae- tucaians siege engines, Alexander ballistae. The Central Asian nomads were ‘equipped with small composite bows, carried by mounted archers, who coukd hit their mark while they were in full gallop. Babur made effective use of @ small park of field guns. In fect one of the rain reasons for the repeated in- plitude of Indian armies in the defence of the natural frontiers of India was their outdated and ineffective military technique ‘Another important factor inthe weak defence of India was the fatlare of her rulers to recognize the very existence ofthe threat from tbe north-west. Where this threat was recognized, the defence was more successful. The thre great empires of the Mauryas, the Guptas, and the Mughals were able to maintain their frontiers because they were united. Even the Hinas, who invaded India towards the end of the period of the Gupta Empire, were expelled ia the end, ‘though the empire disintegrated in the provess. The groat Mughals were well ware of the potential danger from the north-west and tried to maintain theft hold on Kabul and Kandabar, beyond the natural frontiers of India, in order to keep out invaders, Only when their empire was already disintegrating after the death of Aurangecb did the Iranians and Afghans mount their great raids into Mughat territory. The early Turkish sultans waneged to hold off the Mongols because, though their henchmen were far from united and not always loyal to their leaders, they were well aware ofthe common danger and took what steps they could to ward it off, "The Hinda kings at the time of the Turkish invasions were hopelessly divided. We have seen that, when Mahmitd of Ghaznt defeated the Sihis of the north-west and occupied the Panjab, no Hindu king seems to have been aware ‘of the danger to the rest of India, When, nearly 200 years later, Mabammad bin Sam threatened a further atlack, the main kingdoms of nortbern Tndia ‘were in a state of constant friction, frequently erupting into warfare, but ‘warfare ofthe inconclusive type traditional to Hinduism, which never pushed a victory home and thus inhibited both the building up of stable empires and the establishmeat of firm alliences. If Prithviraja had some help from his acighbours to the cast, as certain Muslim accounts assert, it was half-hearted aad ineffectual. The same factors assisted the establishment of the power of the East India Company in the eighteenth century, for as soon as the Com ‘pany begaa to take a part in Indian politics it learat to profit from the dssea- sions of the Indian powers, playing one off against another by a combination of bribes, promises, and threats. ‘Thus the Turkish conquest of most of Tadis, like other conquests both carliee and later, must chilly be ascribed to the Indian political system and to the intense conservatism of the rulers of Indie, especially in military matters. ‘These factors were cancelled out in the internal warfare of the subcontinent, ‘whea foreign iavasion was not involved, for in any such confit both sides were equally affected by them, When an army of vigorous marauders appeared con the north-west frontier, though outnumbered, it stood a very goad chance of overruoning the plains, for the rulers of Tndia Were generally at loggerheads fone with another, and their military methods were technically outdated in comparison with those of the attackers, i Medieval Hind India 37 ‘The period from 4.0. 550 to 1200 saw the rapid development of Aryanized culture in the peninsula, Two main focuses of power emerged, ove in the Deccan and the other in the Tamil plain, and their rulers contended constantly and indecisively for mastery for more than 6oo years, The events ofthis egion throw an interesting light on the Workings of the Hindu political system. For instance in the Decean the Chalukya Dynasty held power from the middle of the sixth fo the middle of the eighth century, A sudden revolt by aa important vassal, Dantidurga of the line of the Rashtraktas, brought about the over- throw of the Chélukyas, They were not completely eradicated, however, but Were allowed to continue as the Réshtcakitas’ vassals, Thus the Chalukyas persisted for 200 yeers, until in the tenth century the Rashtraktas grew weak. ‘Then the Chilukyes seized their chance and regained supremacy, only for their empire to be partitioned among three oftheir owa vassals after a further 200 years. ‘The first great dynasty to contol the Tamil plain was that of the Pallavas, ‘whose rulers introduced many features of northera civilization into the south, Between the Pallavas and the Chalukyas wero several minor kingdoms, usually tributary to one of the greater powers, but always ready to become indepen~ dent whenever they found an opportunity. Among these the Kadambas are worth mentioning because oftheir origia. The line was founded in the Fourth century by a young brafiman, MayBrasacman, who gave up his studies and becauie leader ofa troop of bandits, and levied proteetion money from villages in the hilly western part of the Paliava kingdom. In the end the Pallava’king recogoized Mayarafarman as a vassl; he established his capital at Vanevaet in Mysore and his descendants were classed as ksbatriyas, though they re- membered their brahman ancestry with pride, In the ninth century the Pallavas gave way to the Cholas, who claimed de- scent from the early Temil kings of the same surname who hed disappeared from history over 500 years earlier. The Cholas are noteworthy for theic patronage of art and architecture—splendid temples with majestic towers and fino sculpture, especially in bronze, were produced during their rule, To some extent they revived the tradition of bureaucracy, and developed a more centralized form of government than that of most other Iodian kingdoms, finding a place in the system for village councils, usually chosen by lot, the records of whose deliberations ate still to be seen engraved on the walls of village temples in various parts of Tamilnadu. ‘The Cholas are also noteworthy as the one dynasty of India which, if only for a while, adopted a maritime policy, expanding their power by sea, Under the great Chole emperors Rajarija T (985-1014) and Rajendra T (1012-44), first Ceylon was conquered and then the whole eastern seaboard of Ind far as-the Gangi, Finally, under Rajendra, a great naval expedition s across the Bay of Bengal and occupied strategic points in Sumatra, Malays, and Burma, This Chola maritime empire, the only certain instance of Indian overseas expansion by force of arms, was not an enduring one. Later Chola rulers became once more involved in the endemic wars with the Chalukyas and lost interest in theit overseas possessions, Within fly years of the ex- pedition all the Chota troops had been withdrawn to the mainland, Later the Cholas weakened, and were replaced as the dominant power in Tarailnidu by38 Medieval Hind India the Pandyss, whose eapitel was the sacred city of Maduesi, in the extreme south, ‘The whole of the peninsula was shaken to its foundations by the invasions of the troops of Sultan ‘Ala’a’d-Din Khali of Delhi (1296-1316), led by his general Malik Kafar. As a resulf the Decean came under Muslim domination fot 400 years but the south remained under Hindu control, after a brief inter- Jude when a short-lived Muslim sullanate ruled from Madurai, The hegemony of the Dravidian south fell to the Empire of Vijayanagara, founded in 1336 and surviving until 1565, when iis forces were defeated by 1 coalition of Deccan sultans, Ths Was the last of the great empires on the old Hindu model, and by the time ofits fall the Portuguese were already controlling the seas around India. ‘The long period whose history we have outlined above is sometimes thought | of as one of decline, when compared with the stable and urbane days of the Guptas. This judgement is true in some particulars, ‘The Ieralure of the period, though it includes many important works, bes nothing es near per- fection as the main works of Kalidasa. ‘Tare is much excellent sculpture from this period, but nothing as fine as the best Gupte productions, Yet in archi- tecture there was an immense advance over Gupta times, and, only a century ‘oF two before the Muslims occupied northern India, there arose such splendid temples as those at Khajuriho, Bhubaneswas, Kénchfpuram, and Thanjaviz, among many others. Jn the religious life of India, after the Gupta period, the greatest vitality seems to have been found in the peninsula, Here certain south Indian brah- ‘mans developed Hindu philosophy and theology as never before, and, basing their work oa the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gia, and the Brahma Shires, pro= uced commentaries of great length and subtlety, to defend theic own eyste- riatic interpretations of the texts. Chief of these was Sankarichirys, Keeralan bribinan of tho ninth century, who has with some justification been called the St, Thomas Aquinas of Hinduism. Sunkarichirya was only one of many teachers nearly as great as he, such as Riminuja (died 1137) and Madhva (11197-1276), who founded Sub-sects of the Vedat philosophical school, ‘Pethaps even more important was the growth of simple popula: devotional- sm (bhakti) which began among the Tamils near the beginning ofthis p with the production of the beautiful Tamil hymns of the Nayandrs and Alors. Other products of thé same movement were the Sanskrit Bhagaoata Purdne, ‘whieh, composed in the Tamil country, soon spreed all. over Jadia and-was later translated fato tht everyday languages, to diffuse the cult of Krishna as the divine lover. Before the Muslim conquest of the Deccan this movement hed begun to spread northwards, and left its traces inthe earliest important ‘Maratht literature, su as the Jndnefvart of Jninesyae, Meanwhife Buddhisin steadily lost ground, though it was still very much alive in Bengal and Bihar when the Muslims occupied these regions, Both Buddhism and Hinduism had beoome affeted by what is genecally known af ‘Tanticism or Taatrism, emphasizing the worship of goddesses, especially the Mother Goddess, the spouse of Siva, known by many names, With this came sexual mysticism, and the sacramentalizatioa of the sexual ac, which was Medieval Hindu India 59 performed ritually by circles of initiates. Other socio-eligious practices, looked on as reprehensible by most modera Hindus, became more common in this period. Among these were the burning of widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres, wrongly called sati(suttee), child marriage, animal sacrifice, female infanticide, and the religious prostitution of the devadasi. One feels that there was a definite lowering in the value of human life in compatison With the days of the Guptas, when, according to Chinese accounts, even the death penalty was not inicted, ‘When the Turkish horsemen swept through the Gang& plain, Hindu cule ture was tending to look inwards end backwards—inwards to the private life of the spirit and backwards to the hallowed norms of the distant past. In many respects the legacy ofthis period to later times was a negative one, Yet, in the spiring teraples built ducing this period all over India, the age endowed posterity with monuments of enduring splendour and beauty. The parallel with the medioval period in western Christendom is a elose one. Here too these was in some respects « cultural decline, in comparison with the days of the great empire destroyed by the berbarians. But in ths time new forms of religious literature and art appeared, as well as glorious monuments to faith such asthe older empire could never have built,CHAPTER VIL Hinduism by 8, RADHAKRISHNAN ‘Tu eloquent and moving contribution which follows is the work of one of the great minds of modera India, who bas been President of the Indian Re- public and who now (1972) lives in honourable retirement, as one of the most venerated of India’s grand old men, It was written for the original edi- tion of The Legacy of India when its author was a professor of Calcutta University, and had already made a name for himself as an expositor of Indian thought to the West, a task which lc was to continue as Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions at the University of Oxford. ‘The character of this chapter is more personal than that of most of the ‘other contributions to our volume, but itis no less valuable for that. As the record of the faith of a sensitive, bigbly intelligent Hindu of the early twentieth century, it introduces the reader to those aspects of India’s ancient religion which Have moulded his life and thoughtsithere are, however, 2 number of aspects of the subject which are still very important in the life of India, but are litle touched on by the author, who would hinnself agree that Hinduism has something for everyoue, on all levels of culture, For this reason we have added a brief postscript to the chapter. THE SPIRIT OF HINDUISYC If we look at the various and sometimes conflicting creeds which it contains, we may wonder whether Hinduism is not just a mame which covers aa multitude of diferent faiths, but when we turn our attention to thespiritual life, devotion, and endeavour which lie behind the creeds, we realize the unity, the indefinable self-identity, which, however, is by no means static or absolute, ‘Throughout the history of Hindu Civilization there has been a certain inspir- ing ideal, a certain motive power, a certain way of looking at life, which can not be identiied with any stage or cross-soction of the process. The whole movement and life ofthe institution, its entire history, is necessary in order to disclose to us this idea, and it cannot therefore be expressed in a simple formula. Tt requires centuries for ideas to utier themselves, and at any stage the institution has always an clement that is yet to be expressed, No idea is fully expressed at any one point of is historical unfolding. ‘What is this Idea of Hinduism, this continuous element that runs through ail its stages from the earliest to the lates, from the lowest to the highest, this fundamental spirit which is more fully and richly expressed in the highest though itis present inthe very lowest? Life is preseatin every stage ofa plant's growth and itis always the same life, hough itis more fully expressed in the developed tree than in the first push of the tender blade. In the Hindu religion Hindutsin o there must be a commou clement that makes every stage and every moveteat aaa expression of the religion, The different phases ancl stages have proper content and meaning only ia so far as this common element exists, With the perception of the uity which runs through error and failure up the long. ascent towards the ideal, the whole achievement of Hinduism falls into co hherent perspective. It is this essential spirit that any account of Hinduism would seek to express, the spirit that its institutions imperfectly set forth, the spirit that we need to develop more adequately and richly before a better age ‘and civilization can be achieved. HISTORICAL OUTLINE ‘The spirit is not a dead abstraction but a living force, Because itis active and dynamic the Hindu civilization has endured so long and proved so cap- able of adaptation to the growing complexity of life, The great river of Hind life, usually serene but not without its rapids, reaches back so far that only @ Jong view ean do justice to its nature, From prehistorte times influences have been at work moulding the faith. As a result of the excavations in Hiarappa and Mobenjo-diro we have evidence of the presence in India ofa highly de~ veloped culture that ‘tmust have had a long antecedent hisiory on the soil of India, taking us back to am age that can only be diraly surmised”.* In age and achievement the Indus valley civilization is comparable to that of Egypt or Sumeria, The noteworthy featuce of this civilization is its continuity, not as a political power but as a cuftural influence. The religion of the Indus people is hardly distinguishable, according to Sir John Marshall, from “that aspect of Hinduism which s bouvd up with animismand the cuts of Siva and the Mother Godidess*.+ These later do not seem to be indigenous to the Vedic religion, ‘Though the Sakti colt was later accepted by the Vedic people, their original ‘opposition to itis not altogether suppressed. To the sacrifice of Daksba, all the Vedic deities are said to have been invited except Siva, who soon gained authority asthe suczessor of the Vedie Rudra. Even so late as the Bhagavata Purdna the opposition to Sive-worship is present, “Those who worship Siva and those who follow them aze the opponents of holy seriptures and may be ranked with pashandins. Let the fecble-minded who, with matted Jocks, ashes, and bones, have lost their purity, be initiated into the worsbip of Sivain which wine and brewage are regarded a gods.'? ‘tis a matter for conjectore whether the Indus people had any relation to the Dravidians. Nor can we say whether the Dravidians were natives of the soil or came from outside, Besides the Aryens and the Dravidians there was also a flat-nosed, black-skinned people who were commonly known as daras. ‘The sclision, inthe ist literary records that have come down to us, i that of| the Aryans, though it was much influenced by the Indus people, the Dravide ins, and the aborigines. ‘The simple hymns of the Rig-Vede reveal to us an * Sic John Marshall, Mohenjo-Daro and the Inds Culizaion, 193%, Vol p16. 2 Tid. Vol I, . vi > Bhagovara Parana v. 21a the Pada Purana, pashendins are ead to be “hove who weat suis, thes, and bose, the symbols contrary Cathe Veda, put an matied locks aad the Datks of res, even without eslering into the third order af ie ad engage Ip ites which a0 aot satelioned by the Vedas. Utara donde, Ch 235,& Hinduism age when Pan was.ill alive, when the trees inthe forest could speak and the ‘Waters ofthe river could sing and man could isten end understand. The spell and the charms to be found ia part ofthe tenth book of the Rig-Veda aid in most of the Atharoa- Veda suggest type of religions practice based.on fear and associated with the spirits of the dark, A religious syathesis ofthe dillerent views and practices on the base of moniti idealisia is set forth in the eatly Upanishads. Soon after, a composite culture, springing fom a union of Greek pith Persian and Bactran inftences, dominsted northwestern Indi, Success: ve descents of Muslim conquerors from about A. 1000 affecied Hindu life and thought, The Pirsi fugitives who were expelled from Persia by Muslim invaders fouad a welcome shelter in India, St. Thomas brought the Christian faith from Syria to south India and for overa thousand years this remained the only Christan centre of influence, In the sixteenth century St. Francis Xavier introduced Latin Christianity, The modern Christian missionary movement started over @ century ago. The cultural invasion of the West has been vigor ous, thanks to its political superiority and industrial efficiency. Jainism, Buddhisei, and Sikhism are creations ofthe Indian mind and may be interpreted as reform movements from within the fold of Hinduism put forth to meet the special demands of the Various stages of the Hindu faith, Zoroastrianism, Ilim, and Christianity have been 20 long ja the country that they have become native to the sol and are deeply in lenced by the atmo- sphere of Hinduism, Tndia was a thorough ‘melting-pot” Jong before the term waa invented for ‘America. In spite of attacks, Hellenic, Muslim, and European among others, Hindu culture has maintained its tradition unbroken to the present day. The spiritual life ofthe Hindus at the present time has not precisely the samse pro: Portion or orientation as that of either the Indus people or the Vedie Aryans or even the great teachers, Sankara and Raménuja, ts changes in emphasis tellect individual temperaments, social conditions, and the changing intel. lectual environment, but the same persistent idea reappears in diferent forts, Hindvism grovs in'the proper sense of the word, not by accretion, but like én orgenism, undergoing fiom time to time transformation as a whole, It has carricd within it mach ofits early postessions, thas east aside a good deal and often it has found treasures which it has niade iis own. The history of Hindvism is chequered by tragie failures and wonderful victories, by oppor- tunities missed and taken. New truth hes been denied and persecuted coca sionally. The unity ofits body, realized at the cost of contatis of effort and Jabour, now and then came near being shattered by self-seeking and ignorance. Yet the religion itsef Is not destroyed. It is alive and vigorous and has with: stood attacks from within and without, I'seems to be possessed of unlnted Powers of renewal. Its histori vitality the abounding energy which it reveals, Would alone be evidence ofits spiritual genius. UNIVERSALITY In ts great days Hinduism was inspired to oarry its idea across the frontiers of India and impose it on the civilized world, Its memory has become a part of the Asiatic consciousness, tinging its outlook on life. Today itis t vital cle- Hinduism 6 ationalistic pragmatism of the West. Ithas therefore universal value, ithe ion ofa te nt of Grae iT ol ne sens ttt Was formulated by minds belonging tothe Indian soil. The value of that vision jy does ot reside in any tribal or provincial characteristics, but in those ele © ents-of universality which appeal to the whole world.’ What ean be re= {© e6gaized as peculiarly Indian is not the universal truth which is present init Dut the elements of weakness and prejudice, which oven some ofthe greatest as have in common with theie weaker brethren, ee 2 ggverning conceptions, controlling ideas, dezp dynamic links which bind to~ ~ ofian unchanging creed or a fixed deposit of doctrine, but isthe unity of a Coatinuously changing life. In this essay we can only deal with the general Grito the current of Hindu religion as a whole, not with the many confusing rorscurcents and sects. cae : ST poligion forthe Hind i experince or atitade of mia eis ot an idea © but a power, not an intellectual proposition but a life conviction. Rel sono of uate realy nt a teary about God The eae aius is wot a pedant or a pandit, aot a sophist or a dialectician, but a pro- Plt, ge or dis who embodies fa himel the spstoalvison- When the o. soal’goes inward into ftselt it draws near its own divine root and becomes pervaded by the radiance of another nature, The aim of all religion is the tial realization ofthe highest trth, Its intuition of reality Graken. hao insigh into rth rahmadarona), cootac withthe supreme (raha Sanophre) evel appresension of realty rahmastishtira). “Pia emphasing the experiential a distinet from the dogmatic or eredal harace of reign, Hindi sc 0 be more adeqat than or le 1. pont tothe history of eligion as well as to the coatemporarycligios stuac 5-7 lon: Buddhism ate cipal form id not avow any thes beit, Conf, like Buddha, discouraged his disciples from occupying their minds with {speculations about the Divine Being or the Unseen World, There are systems | of Hindi thought, like the Sanknya and the Parva Miniims, which, in © ome oftheir characteristic phases, cultivate « sprit and attitude to which + itwould be difficult to deny the name of religion, cveHt though they may not | avcept any belief in God or gods superior to oneself. They adopt other {methods for aobeving salvation fom sin and sorrow and do not look to God |) as the source of their saving. We cannot deny to Spinoza thereligiousspicit i it i wnunion between the simply because he did not admit avy reciprocal cotnu divine aod the hman sis, We have instances of eligou fervour end seriousness without a corresponding belie in any being deseribuble es God, i Again, its possible for us to believe in God and yet be without any religious sense. We may repard the proofs forthe existence of God as irrefutable end64 Hinduism yet may not possess the feelings and altitude associated with religion, Reli= sion is not so much a matter of theoretical knowledge as of life and practice. When Kant attacked the traditional proofs of God's existence, and asserted. at the same time his faith in God as a postulate of moral consciousness, he brought out the essentially noti-theoretical character of life in God, It follows that the reality of God is not based on abstract arguments or scholastic proofs, but is derived from the specifically religious experience which aloac gives peculiar significance to the word 'God’, Man becomes aware of God through experience, Rational arguments establish religious faith only when ‘ey are interpreted in the Tight of that religious experience. The arguments do not reveal God to us but are helpful in removing obstacles to the acceptance by ‘our minds of a revelation mediated by that capacity for the apprehension of the Divine which is a normal feature of our humanity.* Those who have de- veloped this centre through which all the threads of the universe are drawn are the religious geniuses, The high vision of those who-have penetrated into the depths of being, their sense of the Divine in all their exaltation of feeling and enrichment of personality, have been the'source of all the noblest work in the world, From Moses to Tsaiab, from Jesus and Paul on to Augustine, Lather, and Wesley, from Socrates and Plato to Plotinus and Phio, from Zoroaster to Buddha, from Confucius to Mahomet, the mea who initiated new eurents of life, the creative personalities, are those who have knowa God by acquaintance and not by hearsay, THE VEDAS ‘What is final isthe religious experience itself, though its expressions change if they are to be relevant to the growing content of knowledge, The experience is what is felt by the individual in his deopest being, what is seen by him (arisht) or heard (éruti) and this is valid for all time. The Veda is seen or heard, not made by its buman authors. Iis spiritual discovery, not sreation. “The Way to wistom is not through intellectual activity. From the beginning, india believed in the superiority of intuition or the method of direct percep- tion of the super-sensible to intellectual reasoning, The Vedic rishis were the first who ever burst into that silent sea of ultimate being end (heir ulterances about what they saw and heard there are found registered in the Vedas. [Naturally they attribute the authorship of the Vedas to a superior spirit. ‘Modern psychology admits thatthe higher achievements of men depend in the last analysis on processes that are beyoud and desper then the limits of the normal consciousness. Socrates speaks of the ‘daimdn’ which acts'as the ceusor‘on and speaks through him, Plato regards inspiration ss an act of a ‘goddess, Ideas are showered on Philo from above, though he is oblivious of everything around him. George Bliot tells us that she wrote ber best work in a kiod of frenzy almost without knowing what she was writing, Accerding to Emerson, all postry is frst written in the heavens, It is conceived by a self deeper than appears in normal life, The prophet, when he begins his message ‘Thus saith the Lord, is giving utterance to his consciousness that the ‘message isnot his own, that it comes from a wider and deeper level of life and from 2 source outside bis limited self. Since we cannot compel these excep- +5ce Clement Webb, Relison and Then 1934, B. 36 Hindutson 65 tional moments to accur, all inspiration hes something of revelation in it, In- stead of considering creative work to be duc to processes which take place ‘unwitlingly, as some psychologists imagine, the Hindu thinkers afirm that the creative deeds, the inspiration of the poets, the vision of the artist, and tbe genius of the man of science are in reality the utterance of the Eternal through yan, In those rare moments man is in touch with wider world and is swayed by an oversoul that is above his own, The seers feel that their experiences are Uamediated direet disclosures from the wholly other and regard them as, supernatural, as not discavered by man’s own activity (akartrika, apaure sheya). They feel that they come to them from God,s though even God is said to be not theie author but theie fornulator, In the last analysis the Vedas are Without any personal author. Since they are not due to personal activity they ‘re not subject to unlimited revision and restatement Dut possess ia a sense the character of finality (niyatoa). ‘While scientific knowledge soon becomes obsolete, intuitive wisdom has a permanent value, Inspired poetry and religious scriptures have a certain time- {essness or universality whieh intellectual works do uot share. While Aristotle's biology is no longer true, the drama of Buripides beautiful, While ‘Vaisesbika atomism is obsolete, Kalidasa’s Sakwniald is unsurpassed in its own line “There is a community and continuity of life between man in his deepest self and God, In etbical cccativity and religious experience man draws on this source, or rather the source of power is cxpressing itself through him. In ‘Tennyson's fine figure the slvices are opened and the great ocean of power flows in, It isthe spirit ia man thal is responding to the spirit in the universe, the deep calling unto the deep. «The Vedas are more a record than an interpretation of religious experience. While their authority is fina, that of the expression and the interpretations of the religious experience is by no means final. The latter are said to be smirit! or the remembered testimonies of great souls, These interpretations are bound to change if they are to be relevant to the growing content of knowledge, Facts ‘lone stand firm, judgements waver and change. Facts can be expressed in the dialect of the age. The relation between the vision and its expression, the fact and its interpretation, is very close, It is more like the body and the skin than the body and its clothes, When the vision isto be reinterpreted, what is necded isnot a mere verbal change but a readaptation to new habits of mind, We have tevidenes to show that the Vedas meant slightly different things to successive generations of believers, On the fundamental, metaphysical, and religious issues the diferent commentators, Sankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva, offer different interpretations, To ascribe finality to a spititual movement is to Dring it to a standstill, To stand stil is €o fall back. There is not and there ‘cannot be any finality in interpretation, AUTHORITY, LOGIC, AND LIFE Insight into reality, which is the goal of the religious quest, is earned by in- {eliectial and moral discipline, Three stages are generally distinguished, a 5 Rig-Vedo, x. 90.93 Brhadaronyaka Upanishads 40 ‘Porhabhavat = -ohthe, Mndmsd-aydyaprakata, 6,Hinduism tradition which we have to earn (raoana), an itellestual ta ‘which we have to pass (manana), and an cthical discipl (nididhydsana)? ‘To hegin with, we areal earnees, We take our views on the authority of a teadition whieh Wwe have done notbing to create but which we have only to sceept in the frst instance. In every department, art or morality, seience or social ie, weare taught the fist principles and are not encouraged to sxerese ‘ue private judgement, Religion is not an exception to this role. Religious seriptures ae seid fo have aright to our acceptance. Te second step i logical reflection or mnnana, To understand the succed tration we should ise out intligence. “Verily, when the sages or rishiswece passing vray, men inquired ofthe gods, “who shall be our rishi? They gave them the sence of reasoning for constructing the sense of the hymns: Criticism helps the discovery of tuth and, if it destroys anything, it only illusions that ate bred by piety that are destroyed by it. Seu and Shi, ex- perience and interpretation, scripture and logo, are the two wings given tothe hhuenan soul to reach the teath, While the Hind view permite vs to erticize the tradition, we should do so only from within, It ena be remoulded and ime proved only'by those who accept it and use itn their livs. Our great re- formers, our eminently original thinkers like Sankara and Raman, are tebels against tradition; but theie convictions, as they themselves admit, are also revivals of tradition. While the Hindus are hostile to those who zevile theie tradition and repudiate it altogether, and condemn them as avait oF asta, they are hospitable to all those who accept the tradition, however critical they may be oft. ‘The authoritativeness ofthe Veda does not prelude critical examination of matters dealt with in it. The Hinds belove thatthe truths of revelation are 5ustiiable to reason. Onc convitions are valuable only whea they are the fe ‘sults of our personal efforts to understand. The accepted tradition becomes reasoned tcuth. Ifthe truths ascereined by inquiry coaflt with the stae- sents found in the seriptues, the latter most be explained ina way agreeable to teith, No seriptures can compel us to believe falsehoods. "A thousend scriptures verity eannot convert a jr into a cloth We have much fo the Peday Which isa product not of man's highest wisdom but of his wayward fancy, It ‘we reinember that revelation precedes its record, we will realize thatthe Veda ‘May not be an accurate embodiment of the former. It has in it a good deal of inference and interpretation mixed up with intuition and experience. nsstence oa Vedie authority is not an encouragement of ereduliy or an ensaving sub- Jestion to scriptural texts, It does not justify the conditions under which de- ‘rading religious despotism grew up iter. ‘The Vedie testimony, the fogiea! truth, mist become for vs the present fat. We must recapture something of that energy of soul of whith the Vedas aro the creation by letting the thoughts and emotions of that stil liviog past vibrate in our spirits, By niddhyarana or contemplative meditation, eteeal Aisciplin, the truth is bull into the substance of our life. What we actept on auiority and est by logics now proved by its power to sustain a definite and 12 through we have to undergo 1 Wivaraea-praneyecsemgraha, p.t. © Minter, xa, | f t | i ‘ ‘ i Hinduism o ‘unique type of life of supreme value. Thought completes itself in fife and we thrill again with the creative experience ofthe frst days of the founders of the religion. aon 1treliions experience, what it ehat we experience? Whats the nature of reality in ou knowledge of Oot, conte with theultimate reality through religious experience plays the'same part which contact with nature through tens perception plays in our knowlege of mature In both we have a sense of tiv eer, ie taneanbjetve, whieh eontols our apprehension, Tels s0 itey piven fous and not made by ux. We build the concept of reality fom the data of elles expeeace, ven as we bulla the order of nate fom the Immediate dat ef sense Tnathe long and siversied history of man's quest fr reaityeepresente by ‘inguis, theo wiah haunt he human snl asa presence atone all embracing and infin evisnge in many diferent ways, The Hindus are Sud to dope poyteism, monototo, arpanthlm a5 wel as bli in dermons, heroes, and nncestos It easy fo find texts in support of each of these es The cls of ive and Sakti may have come down from the lads people, Worship of tees, animals and eves, and other cults associated with tity teh, ray hove had the same org, while the dark powers of the Underworld who ate dreaded and propteted, may be due to aboriginal sources. The Vedic Aryans contributed the higher gods comparable to the Olympians ot the rest, ie the Sky andthe Barth the Sut an the Tire ‘The Hindu religion deal with these dren lines of thought and fuses them into a whole by means of its philosophical synthesis, A religion is judged by what it tends towards, Those who note the ts and sche uth are uate tothe Hindu attempt ' “The relly We experience cannot be fully expreted in terms of logic and language, It defies ll desorption. The ser as cera ofthe objective realty te appsbends as eis of the inadequacy o ough express, A God con proton iro God, bute area consevtion of or minds Indrkoaity, Mather human oc vf, can only be aeepted as given fact and not de- Scribe, Te isnot wholly tensporen to Tog C's ivenkustible by analy Ts inexhaustible proot of ebjexy. However far ye may earty our Towcal enalyi, the given abject nal aniguenes is thee, contig a iit to Our analyse Our (inking fs conolled by something beyond itll ich perception in pleat scence andthe intuition of Godin the scence of ison, The eternal being of God cannot be dseibed by eaeyoce. An stituge of reeves fs adopted regarding te question ofthe nature ofthe Supremes Thove uo kro tl Stnot hose wh tel it know it not, The Keno Upansha says Th efe dons no go thither, nor speech nor mind. We Go not know edo not understand how one can tech Its dierent rom the known, it is also above the unknown.’ Sankara quotes a Vedic passage het the etches sel th pul te secret ofthe sl by Keping lent sboat "Venyy te you, but you tndertend oot theses slence™ The deeper eet ha I oe knows thee of on let cant be Cod +r, Augustine’, fone tows6 Hinduism experience is a ‘wordless’ doctrine. The sages declare that ‘wonderful isthe rman that ean speak of him, and wonderful is also the man that can under- stand him." Buddisa maintained silence about the nature of ultimate reality. ‘Silent ace the Tathigatas. O, Blessed one.’ The Madhyanikas declare that the tcuth is free from such descriptions as *itis', ‘itis not’, *both’, and ‘neither’. Nagarjuna says that Buddha did not give any defiition ofthe ul mate reality. "Nowhere and to nobody has ever anything been preached by the Buddha." A verse attributed to Sankara reads: It is wonderful that there under the banyan tree the pupil is old while the teacher is young, The © planation of the teacher is silence but the doubts of the pupil ae disperse ‘This attitude is teuer and nobler than that of the theologians, who construct slaborate mansions and show us round with the air of God's own estate agents, ‘When, however, attempts are mede, to give expression (o the ineffable reality, negative descriptions are employed. ‘The real isthe wholly other, the utterly transcendent, the mysterious being which awakens in us a sense of ave and wonder, dread and desire. It not only fascinates ns but produces sense of abasement in us. Whatever is teue of empirical being is denied of the Real. The Atman ean only be deseribed by ‘no, no”. Its incomprehensible fo7'it cannot be comprehended.” It is not in space or time; itis free from ‘causal necessity. It is above all conceptions and conceptional differeniations. But on this account it is not to be confused with non-being,¥* [tis being in a ‘more satisfying sense than empirical being. The inadequacy of intellectual analysis is the outcome of the incomparable wealth of intrinsic reality in the supreme being, The eternal being is utterly beyond all personal limitation is beyond all forms though the susiainer of all forms, All religious systems in h mankind has sought to confine the reality of God are inadequate, They make of God an ‘idol’, ‘While the negative characteristics indicate the transcendent character of the real, there is a sense in which the reali also immanent. The very fac that we are able to apprehiend the real means that there is something in us capable of apprehending it. The deepest part of our nature responds to the call of the reality, In spiritual life the law holds that only like can know like, We an only Know what is akin to ourselves. Above and beyond ove rational being lies hidden the ultimate and highest part of our nature. What the mystics call the “pasis' or ‘ground" of the soul is not satisfied by the transitory or the tem- poral, by the sensuous or the intellectual” Naturally, the power by which we aequite the knowledge of God is not logical thought, but spirit, for spirit ean only be spiritually discerned. While the real is uterly transcendent to the empirical individoa, itis immanent in the ultimate pat of our nature. God's revelation and man’s contemplation are two aspects of one end the same ex- "Se Kath Up i275 aho Bhsweed Ci, 29. Lankoarstrais 1 Samhita Up ee +S Saks commentany on Cte Upnt + Aig ustaoalthat weet prson ao eon adds thal ws ca io tnt course at tis bt one slmet nthe mole Beneath es even ny tat ily ata ‘hes pind impenetrable fo ay eanepl can je! be raped inthe nominee Ing y one who fs exec fhe per MO, The eof he i Hinduism 6 perience, The Reyand isthe Within, Beabman is Atman. Hes the antaryaniin the inner controller, He is not only the incommminieable mystery standing for ever in hs own perfet light, bliss, and peace, but also is here in us, upholding, Sustaining usi “Whoever worships God as otber than the self, thinking he is one and Lm another, knows not Religion avises out of the experience of the fnaman spirit which feels its kinship and continuity with the Divine other. ‘A’purely iamanent deity cannot be an object of worship and adoration; a putely traiscendent one does not allow of any worship of adoration. “Hindu thinkers are not content with postulating a being uncelated to humanity, who is merely the Beyond, so fet as the empitical world is con- cerned, Prom the beginnings of Hindu history attempts are made to bring God closer (othe needs of man, Though itis impossible fo describe theultin- ate reality, iis quite possible to indicate by means of symbols aspects of i though the synsbolie description is nota substitute for the experience of God We ate helpless in this matter and therefore are obliged to eubstitute symbols for substances, pictures for realities, We adopt a syinbolie account when we regard the allimite reality asthe bighsst pecson, a5 the supreme personality, as the Father of us all, zcady to respond to the jeeds of humanity. The Rig- Veda hos it; "AU this is the person, tliat which is past and that which is future’ Ii the matrix of the entire being. The Vaishnava thiokers and the Saiva Siddhdntins make of the Supreme, the fulilment of our nature. Hie is Knowledge that will enlighten the ignorant, strength forthe weak, mezey for the guilty, patience for the sufferer, comfort for the comfoitless. Strictly speaking, however, the Supreme is not this or that pecsonal form but is the being that is responsible forall thet was, is, end shall be. His temple is every ‘world, every star that spins in the firmament. No efement can contain im for he is all elemeats, Your life and mine are enveloped by him, Worship is the acknowledgement of the magnificence ofthis supreme reality. ‘We have accounts of the ultimate Reality as both Absolute and God, Brabman, and Ivara, Only those who accept the view of the Supreme as personality admit that the unseacchableness of God cannot be measured by Dur Feeble conceptions. They confess that there is an ovetplus of realty be- Yond the personal concept, To the worshipper, the personal God i the highest. No one can worship what is kaawa as imperfect. Even the idol of th idolater stands for perfection, though he may toss it aside the moment he detects its imperfection, Te wrong to assum that the Supreme is cither the Absolute or God. I is both the Absolute and God. The impersonal and the personal conceptions fate not to be regarded as rival claimants to the exclusive truth. They are the “ent ways in which the single comprehensive patlern reveals itself to the spit of man. One and the same Being is conceived now as the object of philo- Sophical inquiry of jadno, now as an object of devotion or updsana. The conception of ultimate reality and that of a personal God are reconciled in feligious experience, though the reconciliation cannot be easily effected in the region of thought, We cannot help thinking of the Supreme under the analogy Brthodsicanyoka Upanishads ty 1. The Supreme is ‘all hat Which ever i en all the work (Sarsanr iam yarktiea Jasatyam jag. Isa Up...P Hinduisrs of selfconsciousness and yet the Supreme is the absolutely simple, unchang- ing, free, spiritual reality in which the soul finds its kome, its rest, and its completion, NOSPITALITY OF THE HINDU MIND A religion that is based on the central (suih of a comprehensive universal spicit cannot support an inflexible dogmatism. It adopts an attitude of tolera- tion not as a matter of policy or expediency but as a principle of spiritual ‘Toleration is a duty, not a mere concession. In pursuance of this duty Hindu- jam has accepted within its fold almost all varieties of belie? and doctrine and treated them as authentic expressions of the spiritual endesvour, however antithetic they may appear to be. Hinduism warns us that exch of us should be modest enough to realize that we may perlaps be mistaken in our views and what others hold with equal sincerity is not a matter for ridicule, IF we believe that we have the whole mind of God we are tempted to assume that ‘any one who disagrees with us is wrong and ought to be silenced. The Hinds: shared Aristotle's conviction that a view held strongly by many is not usually 1 pure delusion, If any view has ennobled and purified human life over a wide range of space, time, and circumstance, and is still doing the same for those who assimilate its concept, it must embody a real apprehension of the Supreme Being. For Hinduism, though God is formless, he yet informs and sustains ‘counties forms, He is not small and partial, or emote and ineflable. He is not merely the God of Isreet or of Christendom but the erown and fulfilment of you and me, of all men and all women, of life and death, of joy and sorrow, ‘No outward form can wholly contain the inward reality, though every form, " brings out an aspect of it. In all religions, from the lowest to the highest, mam isin contact with an sible environment and attempts to express his view of the Divine by means ‘of images. The animist of the Atharea- Veda, who believes that nature is full of spicits, is religious to the extent that he is convinced of the Divine presence and interpeneteation in the world and nature, The polythelst is right to the extent that the Divine isto be treated on the anslogy of human consciousness rather than any other empirical thing. The gods of the Vedas resemble the Supreme no more than shadows resemble the sun, but, even as the shadows dicate where the sum is, the Vedic deities point to the divection in whieh the Supreme reality lies. Ail forms are directing their steps towards the one God, though slong different paths. The reat is one, though it is expressed in different names, which are determined by climate, history, and temperament. Teach one follows his own path with sincerity and devotion he will surely reach God. Bven inadequate views help their adherents to adapt themselves ‘more successfully to their environment, to order theie experiences more sai factorily, and to act om their environment more creatively. In the great crises of life, our differences took petty and unworthy. All of us have the same urge towards something of permanent worth, the sume sense of awe and faseins: tion before the mystery that lies beyond and within the cosmos, the same pas- son for love and joy, penor and fone, If ve judge the saving power of touth from its empirical effects we see thatevery form of worship and belief Hinduism 1 has strange power which enables us to escape from our littleness and become radiant with a happiness that is not of this world, which transforms unhappy dens into beautiful homes and converts men and women of easy virtue and le knowledge into suffering servants of God. All truth is God's truth and even a little of it can save us from great troubles. Besides, the tcut of religion is, as Troeltsch declared, ‘polymorphic’. The light is scattered in many broken lights and there is mot anywhere any full white ray of divine revelation. Truth is found in all religions, though in different measures. The diferent cevelations do not contradict but on many points confirm one another, For the Hindu, religions differ not in thefe object but in their renderings of its nature. ‘The Hindu attitude to religious reform js based on an understanding of the place of religion in human life, A man's religion is something integral a his nature. Itis like a limb, which grows from him, grows on him, and grows out of him, If we take it away from him we mutilate his humanity and foree it into an unnatural shape. We are all prejudiced in favour of what is our own. In. spite of all logic we are inclined to believe that the home into which we are born is the best of all possible homes, that our parents are not as others are, and we ourselves are perhaps the most reasonable excuse for the existence of the human race on earth. If strangers are sceptical, it is because they do not know. These prejudices serve a useful purpose within limits. Mankind would. never have progressed to this high estate if it had not been for this partiality for our homes and parents, our art and culture, our religion aiid civilization, Ifeach pushes this prejudice to the extreme point, competition and warfare will result, but the principle that each one should accept his own tradition as the best for him requires to be adopted with due care that it is not exagge ated into contempt and hatred for other traditions. Hinduism admits thi principle of historical continuity, recognizes its importance for man's ade vancement, and at the same time insists om equal trentment for others’ views, ‘Trying to impose one's opinions on others is neither 20 exeiting nor so fruitful as joining bands in an endeavour to attain a result much larger than we know. Besides, truth will prevail and does not requise oue propaganda. The func tion of a religious reacher is only to assist the soul's natural movernent to- wards life. The longing for an ideal life may be hidden deep, overlaid, dise torted, misunderstood, ill expressed, but iti there and lly lacking. tis man's birthright which he cannot barter away or squander. We bave to reckon with it and build on its basis. 1t does not matfer what conception of God we adopt so long as we keep up a perpetual search after truth. The great Hindu prayers are addressed to God as eternal truth to enlighten us, o enable us to grasp the secret of the universe better and hetter. There is no finality in this process of understanding. Tolecation in Hindvisin is not equivalent to indifference to truth. Hinduism does not say that truth does not matter. It affirms that al truths are shadows except the last, though all shadows ace cast by the light of truth, Itis one’s duty to press forward whtil the highest trnth is reached. The Hindu method of religious reform or conversion has this for its Conver example, n is nof always by means of argument. By the witness of personat I changes are produced in thought and life. Religious eonvietion