A History of India: Volume 1 (v)

by Romila Thapar

The protagonists of Indian history were the kings and the narration of events revolved around them.

European historians working on this period had been brought up on the classical tradition of Europe, where it was firmly believed that the greatest human achievement was the civilization of the ancient Greeks – le miracle Grec.

That every civilization is its own miracle was not as yet recognized either by European or by Indian historians.

The vast northern Indo-Gangetic plain lent itself more easily to the emergence of large unitary kingdoms. The southern half of the sub-continent, the peninsula, was cut up into smaller regions by mountains, plateaux, and river valleys – the changing topography permitting of less political uniformity than the northern plain.

Periods when large kingdoms flourished became the ‘Golden Ages’ and those which saw the growth of smaller regional states became the ‘Dark Ages’.

for a historian is frequently far more representative of his age than he is aware.

Buddha belonged to the Shakya tribe and Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, to the Jñatrika tribe.

Classical Sanskrit became gradually and increasingly the language of brahmans and the learned few, or had a restricted use on certain occasions such as the issuing of proclamations and official documents, and during Vedic ceremonies. In the towns and the villages, a popular form of Sanskrit was spoken – Prakrit.

Ashoka interpreted these as a paternal despotism whose rallying call was ‘All men are my children’.

The Satavahanas were also called the Andhra dynasty, which has led to the assumption that they originated in the Andhra region, the delta of the Krishna and Godavari rivers on the east coast, from where they moved westwards up the Godavari river, finally establishing their power in the west during the general political confusion on the breaking up of the Mauryan empire. A contrary opinion has also been put forward that the family originated in the west and extended its control to the east coast, finally giving its name, Andhra, to this region. The Andhras held a position of importance as early as the Mauryan period, since they are specifically mentioned by Ashoka amongst the tribal peoples in his empire.

The historical records of the time are contained in the Shangam literature – anthologies of poetry in some ways similar to the Vedic sources, but not directly religious in origin.

Not surprisingly, the religions supported by the merchants, Buddhism and Jainism, saw their heyday during these centuries.

This was the time when the brahmanical religion assumed features which today are recognized as Hinduism. To call it Hinduism at this stage is perhaps an anachronism, since the term was given currency by the Arabs in the eighth century A.D. when referring to those who followed the prevailing religion of India,

The Gupta period is also referred to as the Classical Age of ancient India. The description is true in so far as we speak of the upper classes, amongst whom living standards reached a peak never before attained, and this was largely true for northern India.

Aryabhata was the first astronomer to pose the more fundamental problems of astronomy, in A.D. 499. It was largely through his efforts that astronomy was recognized as a separate discipline from mathematics. He calculated π to 3·1416 and the length of the solar year to 365·3586805 days, both remarkably close to recent estimates.

Hinduism acquired characteristics which have remained with it, while Buddhism had assumed a form which was to lead to its decline. Theoretically, Buddhism was a formidable rival to Hinduism, but in the ritual of worship and in practice it had compromised with the brahmanical religion to such an extent that it could almost have been regarded as a sect of the latter.

Telugu took shape and form in the Andhra region during the ninth century. A number of Sanskrit works were adapted to Teluga during the next couple of centuries, such as those of Kalidasa and the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and these were written largely for popular audiences. Lack of royal patronage militated against the literary use of Telugu.

Kanauj became a bone of contention between three powers, the Rashtrakutas, the Pratiharas, and the Palas, and much of the military activity of these powers was directed towards its conquest.

Much of Kamarupa was conquered in 1253 by the Ahoms, a Shan people who came from the mountains to the south-east of Assam. It was they who finally gave the place its name, Assam being derived from Ahom.

The Rajputs rose to political importance in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. when they were divided into a number of clans of which four claimed a special status. These four – the Pratiharas or Pariharas (not to be confused with the main Pratiharas with whom this clan had connexions), Chahamanas, more commonly called Chauhans, Chaulukyas (distinct from the Deccan Chalukyas) or Solankis, and Paramaras or Pawars

Contact with the world outside became more and more limited as the obsession with local affairs increased.

The biggest puzzle is why a conjoint effort of the various Indian rulers was not made, through the centuries, to defend the north-west passes.

The period from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries is sometimes referred to as ‘the dark age’, when classical Hindu culture declined and political disintegration facilitated the conquest of the sub-continent by a totally foreign power. But, far from being a dark period, it is a formative period which rewards detailed study, since many institutions of present-day India began to take enduring shape during this period.

In 1336 the kingdom of Vijayanagara was founded, and for the next two centuries it became the dominant power in the south. The dream of empire had come to an end.

Tribal and clan rivalries were forgotten as the opposition to Ibrahim grew, culminating in the nobles inviting foreign assistance to overthrow him, which they hoped would re-establish their equality and independence within the Sultanate. The governors of the Punjab and Sind appealed for help to Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan, seeking his fortune in Afghanistan.

The library at Nalanda was destroyed during the Turkish attack, so the few such manuscripts which survived were preserved in Nepal.

Krishna Deva refers to this in his Telugu poem, Amuktamalyada. A king should improve the harbours of his country and so encourage its commerce that horses, elephants, precious gems, sandalwood, pearls, and other articles are freely imported into his country. He should arrange that the foreign sailors who land in his country on account of storm, illness, and exhaustion are looked after in a manner suitable to their nationality. … Make the merchants of distant foreign countries who import elephants and good horses be attached to yourself by providing them with daily audience and presents and by allowing decent profits. Then those articles will never go to your enemies….

The sixteenth century brought two new factors into Indian history – the Mughuls who came by land and began by establishing themselves in the north, and the Portuguese who came by sea to establish themselves in the south and the west. Both these new factors were to shape the course of Indian history – the Portuguese by striving to win a monopoly of the overseas trade of India, the Mughuls by founding an empire. Though the Portuguese failed the Mughuls succeeded, and between them they carried India into a new age.