A History of India: Volume 1 (v)

by Romila Thapar

When European scholars first established a relationship with India in the eighteenth century and became curious about its past, their sources of information were the brahman priests – the acknowledged guardians of the ancient tradition, who maintained that this tradition was preserved in the Sanskrit sources with which only they were familiar. Thus, much of the early history of India was reconstructed almost entirely from Sanskrit sources, i.e., from material preserved in the ancient classical language. Many of these works were religious in nature and this naturally coloured the interpretation of the past. Even somewhat more secular literature such as the Dharmashastras (Law Books) had brahman authors and commentators and was therefore biased in favour of those in authority and generally adhered to the brahmanical interpretation of the past, irrespective of its historical validity. For example, the caste system as described in these sources appears to have been a rigid stratification of society, apparently imposed from an early period and thereafter preserved almost intact for many centuries. Yet the actual working of caste in Indian society permitted of much variation, which naturally the authors of the Law Books did not wish to admit.

IT was once the tradition that the first king of India was Manu Svayambhu (the Self-born Manu). Manu was born directly of the god Brahma, and was a hermaphrodite. From the female half of his body he bore two sons and three daughters, from whom descended a series of Manus. One of them, called Prithu, became the first consecrated king of the earth, and gave to the earth her name, Prithvi. He cleared the forests, cultivated the land, and introduced cattle-breeding, commerce, and other activities associated with a settled life. But the tenth Manu was the most famous of them all. It was when he ruled over the earth that the great flood occurred, when everything was submerged and only Manu survived. The god Vishnu warned Manu of the flood, and Manu built a boat to carry his family and the seven sages of antiquity. Vishnu took the form of a large fish, to which the boat was fastened, swam through the flood, and lodged the boat on a mountain peak. Here Manu, his family, and the seven sages remained, until the water had subsided and they could safely return. The human race sprang from Manu and his family, the survivors of the great flood. Manu had nine sons, the eldest of whom was a hermaphrodite – hence known by a dual name Ila and ã From this son arose the two main lines of royal descent, the Solar dynasty (Suryavamsha) from Ila and the Lunar dynasty (Chandravamsha) from ã