Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography

by Sanjeev Sanyal

Nearchus, Alexander’s admiral, tells us that Indians wore clothes made from white cotton. The lower garment reached below the knee, halfway to the ankles. The upper garment was thrown over the shoulder and a turban was worn on the head. Nearchus was describing the dhoti and angavastra—clothes that have been worn since Vedic times and continue to be worn even today. He goes on to say that wealthy Indians wore ivory earrings and used parasols against the sun. They also wore leather sandals with elaborate trimmings and thick soles to make themselves look taller!

In contrast, Chanakya was a professor of Political Economy in Taxila. When Alexander entered into an alliance with the king of Taxila, the Brahmins of the city opposed this. Plutarch tells us that Alexander had several of them hanged to death.

Around 321 BC, they defeated the Nanda king of Magadh and emerged as the paramount power in the subcontinent.

Chandragupta gained control over Balochistan and Afghanistan. Seleucus also gave his daughter in marriage to a Mauryan prince, perhaps Chandragupta himself.

In 297 BC, Chandragupta placed his son Bindusara on the throne, gave up all worldly possessions and became a Jain monk. He took the Dakshina Path and travelled down to Sravana Belagola (in Karnataka) and, according to Jain tradition, starved himself to death to cleanse his soul.

Civilizations have long memories, both conscious and sub-conscious, and the legendary deeds of ancient heroes can echo down the centuries.

Bindusara, asked Antiochus of Syria for figs, wine and a Greek teacher of rhetoric. Antiochus sent the figs and the wine but refused the last request on grounds that Greek law did not permit the sale of scholars!

names. The Cholas would remain a powerful clan for the next one and half millennia and would head a powerful empire of their own in the tenth and eleventh century AD.

The Kalinga campaign was clearly brutal, with 150,000 deported, a direct death toll of 100,000 and even larger numbers dead from wounds and famine. India’s population at this stage would have been around 65 million 24 and casualties on such a scale would have been devastating for a small province like Kalinga.

Excavations at Kalinga’s capital of Tosali reveal structures that still bear marks of a devastating assault. The large number of arrowheads found embedded in a small section of the ramparts tell of a blizzard of arrows.

Archaeologists have found remains of workshops along the river where this stone was carved and polished. 25 As the river turns, the ancient ghats of Varanasi come into sight and, for a moment, one can imagine oneself as a Mauryan boatman transporting Chunar stone to the imperial workshop.

when India became independent, Mauryan lions and the chakra became the country’s national symbols. The founding fathers of the Indian Republic intuitively understood that the lions and the wheel stood for the power of the State.

Taxila in the north-west was not just a vibrant city but an important intellectual hub. In the east, Tamralipti was established as a major port; it is likely that Emperor Ashoka sent his son Mahindra on a mission to Sri Lanka from there. The site is located across the river from Kolkata and is not far from the port of Haldia. The name ‘Tamralipta’ means ‘full of copper’ and may have originally been linked to export of copper goods.

The imperial capital of Pataliputra, of course, was the most important city in the empire. Megasthenes, 27 the Macedonian ambassador to Chandragupta, tells us that Pataliputra was surrounded by massive wooden palisades with 64 gates and 570 watch-towers. The city was shaped like a parallelogram 14.5 km in length and 2.5 km in breadth. Even if one does not take the numbers literally, they imply a very large city.

instance, there were traffic rules stating that bullock-carts were not allowed to move without a driver. A child could only drive a cart if accompanied by an adult. Reckless driving was punished except when the nose-string of the bullock broke accidentally or if the animal had panicked.

Kautilya did not approve of nosy neighbours as there is even a rule against interfering in the affairs of a neighbour. Very interestingly, there are specific injunctions against urinating and defecating in public spaces. The Arthashastra specifies fines for urinating or defecating near a water reservoir, a temple and a royal palace.

The establishment of the Mauryan empire appears to have created a stable environment that encouraged internal and external trade.

A rump empire continued under the Shunga dynasty.

Nonetheless, the north-western parts of the subcontinent were steadily occupied by Indo-Greek kingdoms that evolved a culture based on a mix of Indian, Greek and Bactrian elements.

The great drought caused the Xiongnu to migrate into the lands of another Central Asian tribe called the Yueh-Chih. In turn, the Yueh-Chih displaced the Sakas (Scythians), the Bactrians and Parthians. One by one, these groups were forced into the subcontinent. Thus, Afghanistan and North West India saw a succession of invasions and migrations.

Mauryas. The heart of Indian civilization had already shifted from the Sapta-Sindhu region to the Gangetic plains during the Iron Age. Now, the action shifted to the coasts due to a boom in maritime trade.

We see this all along the coast from Gujarat in the west

to Kerala in the south-western tip and then all along the eastern seaboard up ...

Exact dates are not available, but they probably took place between the third century BC and the sixth century AD. Madurai appears to have been the venue for most of these gatherings. However, it is said that the tradition began in an even earlier city, also called Madurai, that was built along the coast and that, like Dwarka, was swallowed by the sea.

For some odd reason, Indian historians see cultural influences flow only from the North to the rest of the country. The reality was of back-and-forth exchange.

Many of the words that are generally considered as Sanskrit words used in modern Tamil are actually ancient Tamil words that found their way into Sanskrit. We

traders. Even the island’s name is derived from Sanskrit—Dwipa Sukhadara (Island of Bliss).

Imports into Barygaza are listed by the Periplus and include: gold, silver, brass, copper, lead, perfumes and ‘various sashes half a yard wide’. Italian and Arabian wine was also imported in large quantities.

Exports included spikenard, ivory, onyx stone, silk and, most importantly, cotton textiles. Cotton textiles have remained a major export from this area till modern times.

Excavations between 2004 and 2009 have identified it with a village called Pattanam, 30 km north of Kochi. Archaeologists have dug up a large number of Roman coins, amphorae and other artifacts in the area. It would remain a major port till it was destroyed by a big flood on the Periyar river in 1341 AD.

is the Kizhthali Shiva temple that is said to have been built by the Chera dynasty in the second century BC. The dragons carved into the steps in front of the shrine strongly reminded me of the temples of South East Asia. Has this style made its way from Kerala to Java or the other way around?

Roman writer Pliny (23–79 AD) wrote: ‘Not a year passed in which India did not take fifty million sesterces away from Rome.’

There were dozens of ports all along the coast including the great port of Tamralipti in Bengal,

the cluster of ports around Chilka lake in Orissa (recently renamed Odisha), the Pallava port of Mahabalipuram and the Chola port of Nagapattinam.

the kingdom was founded by the Indian Brahmin, Kaundinya, who married a local princess of the Naga (Snake) clan. Together they founded a dynasty that ruled Funan for a hundred and fifty years. The Naga or snake motif would remain an important royal symbol in this part of the world.

Over the next thousand years, Funan’s legacy would evolve into the great Hindu–Buddhist kingdoms of Angkor in Cambodia and Champa in Vietnam.

Strongly Indianized kingdoms and cultures evolved in other parts of South East Asia as well. In Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, the Srivijaya kingdom prospered on trade between India and China. In Java, a succession of Hindu kingdoms culminated in the powerful Majapahit empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

According to the Samguk Yusa,9 Princess Huh Hwang-ok of Ayodhya sailed all the way to Korea to marry King Suro in the fourth century AD. They had ten sons and together founded Korea’s earliest dynasty. The Gimhae Kim clan

claims to be direct descendants of this union and remains influential (former President Kim Dae Jung was from this clan).

see, the Gupta monarchs clearly wanted to establish a link not just with the Mauryans but back as far as the Bronze Age.

Aryabhatta worked out that the earth was spherical and that it rotated on an axis.

argued that the phases of the moon were due to the movement of shadows and that the planets shone through reflected light. He even worked out a remarkably accurate estimate of the circumference of the earth and of the ratio Pi.

While in Pataliputra, he witnessed a festival where the people built gigantic four-wheel wagons and then erected towers on them that were five storeys high. They then covered the towers in fine white linen and decorated them with canopies of embroidered silk. Fa Xian tells us that the people placed idols of their gods within these structures and images of the Buddha on the corners of the wagons.

‘For I assure you that the darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and considered better than others who are not so dark. Let me add that in very truth these people portray and depict their gods and their idols black and their devils white as snow.’

India. The Cheraman Juma mosque in Kerala claims to have been established in 629 AD. If true, this would not just make it India’s oldest mosque but also the second oldest in the world!

capital. Indian goods and merchants so dominated the trade that the Arabs spoke of Basra as ‘belonging to al-Hind’.

Interestingly, the most important Indian export of the period was the steel sword. The country was famous at that time for the quality of its metallurgy, and the swords used by the early Muslim armies were often of Indian origin.

According to the Qissa-i Sanjan, 7 the local Hindu king allowed them to settle on the condition that they adopt the local language (Gujarati) and cease to bear arms. They were otherwise allowed full freedom in religious matters.

According to the oral tradition of the Mohyal Brahmins of Punjab, some of their ancestors died fighting for Hussein in the Battle of Karbala, Iraq, in 680 AD. This is why this group of Hindus, also known as Husseini Brahmins, still join Shia Muslims during the ritual mourning of Muharram every year.

At about the same time, another group from central India travelled west, across the Middle East, to Europe. We know them today as the Gypsies or the Roma.