Ancient India In Historical Outline PDF

ANCIENT INDIA In Historical Outline by D.N. Jha This book is a substantially modified and enlarged version of the author's Ancient India: An Introductory Outline (Delhi, 1977) and surveys the major developments in India's social, economic and cultural history up to the end of the ancient period an...

ANCIENT INDIA In Historical Outline by D.N. Jha This book is a substantially modified and enlarged version of the author's Ancient India: An Introductory Outline (Delhi, 1977) and surveys the major developments in India's social, economic and cultural history up to the end of the ancient period and the beginning of the early middle ages and explains the rise and growth of states with reference to their material basis. Special attention has been paid to the elements of change and continuity in society, economy and culture, and to the changing forms of exploitation and consequent social tensions as well as to the role of religion and superstition in society. The book demolishes the popular historiographical stereotypes created by the Hindu- chauvinist communal writings. It also gives the lie to the view that the Indian society has been stagnant and changeless—a view which was propagated by Western scholars in the heyday of British imperialism and continues to be peddled ingeniously in our own times. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi... and the demolition of the Baburi Masjid are two... unforgettable milestones in the unfolding of the backward- looking Hindu revivalist and fascist politics of contemporary India. Since both Harappa and Mohenjodaro are situated now in Pakistan, the Hindu revivalists are busy locating the epicentre of the Harappan culture in the elusive Saraswati valley. Dwijendra Narayah Jha graduated from Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1957 and obtained M..A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1959 and 1964 respectively from Patna University where he taught history up to 1975. He is currently professor of history at the University of Delhi. Professor Jha has lectured at universities and other centres of education in India and abroad and was National Lecturer in History, University Grants Commission, during 1984-5. His works include Revenue System in Post- Maurya and Gupta Times (Calcutta, 1967), Ancient India: An Introductory Outline (Delhi, 1977), Studies in Early Indian Economic History (Delhi, 1980), Economy and Society in Early India: Issues and Paradigms (Delhi, 1993) and a number of articles published in Indian and foreign journals. He has to his credit several edited works including Feudal Social Formation in Early India (Delhi, 1987) and Society and Ideology in India: Essays in Honour of Professor R.S. Sharma (Delhi, 1996). Professor D.N. Jha was president of the ancient Indian history section of the Indian History Congress in 1979 and its General Secretary from 1985 to 1988.  ANCIENT INDIA In Historical Outline Revised and Enlarged Edition D.N. JHA MANOHAR 2010 First published 1977 under the title Ancient India: An Introductory Outline Ninth Reprint 1997 Hindi translation first published 1980 Eighth reprint 1997 Chinese translation first published 1984 This revised and enlarged edition first published December 1998 Paperback edition first published 1999 Reprinted April 1999, January 2000, July 2000, March 2001, June 2002, July 2003, August 2004, July 2005, July 2006. March 2007, July 2008, September 2009 June 2010 ©D.N. Jha, 1977,1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the author and the publisher ISBN 81-7304-266-7 (Hb) ISBN 81-7304-285-3 (Pb) Published by Ajay Kumar Jain for Manohar Publishers & Distributors 4753/23 Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110 002 Typeset by AJ Software Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi 110 005 Printed at Print Perfect Greater Noida  IN MEMORIAM DAMODAR DHARMANAND KOSAMBI (31 July 1907-29 June 1966) >* Contents List of Illustrations 9 List of Maps 11 Preface to the Second Edition 13 Preface to the First Edition 15 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 17 Beginning of European interest in Indian past; Early Orientalists; Christian missionaries; Utilitarians; Administrator-historians; Orientalism; Indian response to British view of Indian past; Influence of social reform movements and nationalism; Glorification of ancient India; Marxist trend: D.D. Kosambi; Need for a new periodization; Scope of the book. CHAPTER 2: FROM PREHISTORY TO THE HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 27 Prehistoric beginnings; Neolithic communities; Chalcolithic farmers; Origin and extent of the Harappan civilization; Urban planning; Subsistence strategies; Political organization; Script; Craft, technology and trade; Religious beliefs; Decline of the Harappan civilization. CHAPTER 3: THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 41 The Aryan theory of race;Vedic literature; Rigvedic Aryans and the autochthons; Pastoralism;Tribal polity; Social differentiation; Rigvedic religion; Later Vedic phase; Aryans move eastwards; Transition to agricultural economy; crystallization of castes; Social changes; Incipient territorial monarchy; Sacrificial cult; Upanishadic reaction; Ashrama system. CONTENTS CHAPTER 4: THE MATERIAL BACKGROUND OF RELIGIOUS DISSENT: JAINISM AND BUDDHISM Sources; Material milieu; Iron technology; Settled agriculture; Rise of new classes; Vardhamana Mahavira; Jainism; Gautama Buddha; Buddhism; Social changes and new religious attitudes. CHAPTER 5: THE FIRST TERRITORIAL STATES I he mahajanapadas; Rise of Magadha; Ajatashatru;The Nandas; Alexander's invasion and its impact; Bases and features of monarchical states; Nature of 'republics'. CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST EMPIRE Sources; The Maurya kings; Magadhan expansion;Administrative machinery; Kautilyan economic policies; Society and religion; Ashoka and his dhamma; Maurya art; Decline of the empire. CHAPTER 7: INVASIONS, TRADE AND CULTURE c. 200 BC-AD 3.00 Sources; Shungas and Kanvas; Re-emergence of tribal states; Movements from the. north-west; Indo- Greeks; Indo-Parthians; Kushanas;The Satavahanas in the Deccan; State formation in the tar south; Agrarian changes; Land grants; Trade with the Western world and South-East Asia; Monetization; Urbanization; Proliferation of arts and crafts; Guilds; Social crisis; Buddhism and Jainism; Brahmanical religion; Art; Cave architecture; Sculpture and terracotta; Literature. CHAPTER 8: THE MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE i he Gupta Rulers; their conquests and administrative organization; Agrarian developments and new forms of exploitation; Decline of trade; De-urbanization; Position of women; Changes in social structure; Rigid varna distinctions; Social tensions; Brahmanical religion and its social role; Buddhism and Jainism; Philosophical systems; Art and architecture; Sculpture and painting; Literature; How golden was the 'Golden Age'? Bibliography Index 62 78 92 111 149 175 197 Illustrations Plate 1: View of site showing Great Bath, Mohenjodaro, Pakistan, Harappa period. Plate 2: Female figure, front and back views. From Mohenjodaro, Pakistan, Mature Harappa period, c. 2100-1750 bc. Bronze. Ht: 11.5 cm. National Museum, New Delhi. Plate 3: Punch-marked coins. Plate 4: Yakshi chauri-bearer. Didarganj, Patna, c. third- second century bc. Polished sandstone. Ht: 160 cm, 204 cm with pedestal. Patna Museum, Patna. Plate 5: Obverse and reverse of (a) coin of Kshaharata Bhumaka from Mathura; (b) coin of Kaniska, son of Huvishka, found at Sonkh, Mathura; and (c) gold coin of Huvishka. Plate 6: Anathapindika's gift of Jetavana to Buddha showing the water vessel essential for pouring water to make the gift. Bharhut, Central India, Sunga period, second century bc. Indian Museum, Calcutta. Plate 7: Stupa I (Great Stupa). Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, c. third century Be through first century ad. Plate 8: Interior of Chaitya hall. Karle, Maharashtra. Kshaharata, Shaka period, c. AD 120. Plate 9: Female terracotta figure. From Tamluk, West Bengal, Sunga period, c. second-first century bc. Ht: 21 cm. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Plate 10: Life events of Shakyamuni Buddha. Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, Satavahana period, 31 36 67 109 127 132 137 138 139 10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS c. second century. White marble. Ht: 160 cm. British Museum, London. 140 Plate 11: Kanishka. Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, Kushan period, reign of Kanishka or later c. second century. Reddish sandstone. Ht: 170 cm. Mathura Museum, Mathura. 141 Plate 12: Woman with a bird cage. From a railing pillar, Bhutesar, Mathura, Kushana period, second century ad. Red sand-stone. Ht: 129 cm. Indian Museum, Calcutta. 142 Plate 13: Vedika pillar with Greek warrior. Bharhut, Madhya Pradesh, Sunga period, c. 100-80 bc. Reddish brown sandstone. Indian Museum, Calcutta. 143 Plate 14: Standing Buddha. From Bactro-Gandhara region, Pakistan, Kushana period. Ht: 150 cm. approx. Lahore Museum, Lahore. 144 Plate 15: Coins of Samudragupta: Chandragupta I— Kumaradevi type (1-3), Standard type (4-6). 157 Plate 16: Gupta temple, Sanchi. 166 Plate 17: Facade of Ajanta cave XXVI. 168 Plate 18: Details of an apsara. Fresco, Ajanta cave. 169 Map Map Map Map Map Map Map Map 8: Map 9: Map 10: Maps facing page 17 29 53 64 81 96 113 120 124 India: Physical Features Extent of the Harappa Culture Distribution of Painted Grey Ware Distribution of Northern Black Polished Ware The Mahajanapadas The Empire of Asoka {c. 274-236) India in about ad 150 India (c. 200 bc-ad 300) Ancient Trade Routes The Gupta Empire at the Close of the Fourth Century 152 Preface to the Second Edition The present book is a substantially modified and enlarged version of my Ancient India: An Introductory Outline, first published in 1977. It has since had nine reprints in English and eight in Hindi as well as a Chinese edition (1984).The survival of the book for more than two decades has forced me to both review and revise it. All the chapters of the book have, therefore, been rewritten and most of the points made earlier have been elaborated on the basis of recent researches which have brought about some change in my perception of the historical processes at work in ancient India without, necessarily, making me take an academic somersault. The bibliography has been updated and made more detailed to enable the non-specialist reader to investigate points" which may appear to him worth pursuing. Revision has thus meant rewriting which has made the book quite different from its earlier version. This should explain why it is being issued under a modified title. I have always benefited from interaction with my students and professional colleagues but for whose criticisms the book could not have taken its present shape. In the course of its preparation I have received help from a number of friends and well wishers some of whom insist on anonymity. I cannot, however, restrain myself from expressing my gratitude to Professor R.S. Sharma who has extended unhesitating support to my academic endeavours during the last four decades. Professor Shingo Einoo of the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, found time to discuss with me the various aspects of brahmanical rituals and their social context. Professor K.M. Shrimali, Dr Nayanjot Lahiri, Dr B.P. Sahu, Dr R.K. Chattopadhyaya and Dr V.M. Jha drew my attention to some recent publications; and Dr Monica Juneja helped me by interpreting some writings in German. Mrs Suchitra Gupta and Mr D.N. Gupta used their influence to get some rare books for my use. Mr Bhola Nath Varma of Manohar Preface to the Second Edition The present book is a substantially modified and enlarged version of my Ancient India:An Introductory Outline, first published in 1977. It has since had nine reprints in English and eight in Hindi as well as a Chinese edition (1984).The survival of the book for more than two decades has forced me to both review and revise it. All the chapters of the book have, therefore, been rewritten and most of the points made earlier have been elaborated on the basis of recent researches which have brought about some change in my perception of the historical processes at work in ancient India without, necessarily, making me take an academic somersault. The bibliography has been updated and made more detailed to enable the non-specialist reader to investigate points" which may appear to him worth pursuing. Revision has thus meant rewriting which has made the book quite different from its earlier version. This should explain why it is being issued under a modified title. I have always benefited from interaction with my students and professional colleagues but for whose criticisms the book could not have taken its present shape. In the course of its preparation I have received help from a number of friends and well wishers some of whom insist on anonymity. I cannot, however, restrain myself from expressing my gratitude to Professor R.S. Sharma who has extended unhesitating support to my academic endeavours during the last four decades. Professor Shingo Einoo of the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, found time to discuss with me the various aspects of brahmanical rituals and their social context. Professor K.M. Shrimali, Dr Nayanjot Lahiri, Dr B.P. Sahu, Dr R.K. Chattopadhyaya and Dr V.M. Jha drew my attention to some recent publications; and Dr Monica Juneja helped me by interpreting some writings in German. Mrs Suchitra Gupta and Mr D.N. Gupta used their influence to get some rare books for my use. Mr Bhola Nath Varma of Manohar 14 PREFACE D.N. Jha Publishers & Distributors gave me valuable editorial advice. Mr J.B. Khanna of the Delhi University Library System and Mr Parmanand Sahay of the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, ungrudgingly allowed me to consult the books which are difficult to get in Delhi. Ratan Lai, Ashutosh and Jagriti have rendered bibliographical assistance. Mr Shyam Narain Lai has supplied the maps and Mr Ramesh Jain of the Manohar Publishers & Distributors has expedited the publication of the book. Gopal and Amarnath have helped in various ways. Dr CM. Jha and Dr (Mrs) R.K.Jha have always stood by me in difficult times. I am grateful to all of them. In revising the last chapter of the book I have made use of the data collected by me for a research project sponsored and funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. I take this opportunity to thank them. I place on record my gratitude to my late mother-in-law Saraswatee Sinha who constantly goaded me to complete the work but did not live to see it in print. I wish I could find right words to express my indebtedness to my wife Rajrani whose robust optimism has been a constant source of inspiration. This book is dedicated to the memory of the late lamented Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi who granted me the privilege of working under his guidance during his field trips to the villages of Bihar in the last years of his life. It is a pity that the compilation qf his papers on Indology done by me nearly two decades ago for publication by the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, has become the victim of the pettifoggery of some 'friends'. 25 December 1998 Preface to the First Edition The present book is primarily meant for general readers who have some interest in India's early history. It surveys the main historical developments in ancient India up to the end of the Gupta rule in the 6th century ad and takes into account the recent studies by specialists on the subject. The draft of the book was read by Professor R.S. Sharma, head of the department of history, University of Delhi, whose suggestions and incisive comments have helped me a great deal,I am grateful to Professor A.L. Basham, Australian National University, Canberra, who has made me think afresh on many points. My thanks are due to Shri S. Sengupta for drawing maps, Shri Kameshwar Prasad, lecturer in history, Patna University, for preparing the index, and to the Archaeological Survey of India for the illustrations. I am also thankful to my friends Professor R.L. Shukla, Shri Mohit Sen, Shri M.B. Rao and Shri Subodh Roy for their keen interest in the completion of the work. I do not know how to adequately express my thanks to my wife Rajrani for. assisting me silently in various ways. Delhi D.N. Jha 15 March 1911 "1 CHAPTER 1 Introduction $21 «A For long centuries India was known to the rest of the world only through stray references to it in classical Greek and Roman literature. In the eighteenth century, however, we come across a few Jesuit fathers in the peninsular region making a systematic effort to understand the life of the Indian people. Father Hanxleden, active in the Malabar area from the end of the seventeenth century to the fourth decade of the eighteenth, wrote the first Sanskrit grammar in a European language, which remained unpublished. Father Couerdoux, in 1767, was the first to recognize the affinity between Sanskrit and European languages. The foundation of Indology, however, was laid not by Jesuit missionaries but by officers of the English East India.Company. A trading organization at the time of its inception in 11600, it gradually acquired territories which were later to become the building blocks of the British empire. The transformation of a trading partner into a ruling power, though an area of absorbing study, is not our concern here. But it is necessary to bear in mind that historical writing—in the modern sense—on early India began as a sequel to the establishment of the English East India Company. The growing administrative responsibilities of the Company, especially after 1765 when the Mughals granted it the right to collect revenues and administer civil justice in Bengal, made it necessary for its officers t0 gain familiarity with the laws, habits, customs, and history of the Indian people. Many administrators therefore evinced keen interest ln Indian literature and culture. In 1776 N.B. Halhed translated into English the most authoritative among all the early Indian legal texts, e lawbook of Manu, which appeared in German two years later. In | 8~>, Charles Wilkins rendered into English the Bhagavadgita, the ¦^ ost popular religious text of the upper caste Hindus, to be followed '°7, by his translation of the HHopadesha, a popular collection of CHAPTER 1 Introduction For long centuries India was known to the rest of the world only through stray references to it in classical Greek and Roman literature. In the eighteenth century, however, we come across a few Jesuit fathers in the peninsular region making a systematic effort to understand the life of the Indian people. Father Hanxleden, active in the Malabar area from the end of the seventeenth century to the fourth decade of the eighteenth, wrote the first Sanskrit grammar in a European language, which remained unpublished. Father Couerdoux, in 1767, was the first to recognize the affinity between Sanskrit and European languages. The foundation of Indology, however, was laid not by Jesuit missionaries but by officers of the English East India Company. A trading organization at the time of its inception in 1600, it gradually acquired territories which were later to become the building blocks of the British empire. The transformation of a trading partner into a ruling power, though an area of absorbing study, is not our concern here. But it is necessary to bear in mind that historical writing—in the modern sense—on early India began as a sequel to the establishment of the English East India Company. The growing administrative responsibilities of the Company, especially after 1765 when the Mughals granted it the right to collect revenues and administer civil justice in Bengal, made it necessary for its officers to gain familiarity with the laws, habits, customs, and history of the Indian people. Many administrators therefore evinced keen interest m Indian literature and culture. In 1776 N.B. Halhed translated into nghsh the most authoritative among all the early Indian legal texts, e lawbook of Manu, which appeared in German two years later. In °5, Charles Wilkins rendered into English the Bhagavadgita, the m°st popular religious text of the upper caste Hindus, to be followed 87, by his translation of the Hkopadesha, a popular collection of 18 ANCIENT INDIA INTRODUCTION 19 fables composed by Narayana in the twelfth century in Bengal. H.I Colebrooke, who had around this time become associated with tht collection of revenue in Tirhut and was able to master Sanskrit wrote extensively on the Indian concept of time, religious rites an; customs and various other aspects of Indian culture on the basis o intensive study of the original texts. The most important of the Company's officers who gave a rea boost to Indian studies was Sir William Jones. He came to Calcutta a a judge of the Supreme Court of Bengal in 1783 and founded th Asiatic Society of Bengal in the following year. The Society and it journal, Asiatic Researches, provided a much needed forum for Orient; studies and can be regarded as a landmark in the revelation of th traditional thought and culture of India. A polyglot with knowledg of Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Sanskrit and a smattering c Chinese, Jones translated the Shankuntala of Kalidasa (which drei unqualified admiration from Herder and Goethe and reached a extremely wide European readership), the Gitagovinda, and legal tex like the Al Sirajiyyah, and the Manavadharmashastra. Intensive researc on the Muslim and Hindu laws of inheritance undertaken by Jon and his British contemporaries may be seen as an attempt to brea the Indian monopoly of legal knowledge and assert British judici power. The efforts of Sir William Jones were followed by tli establishment of the Bombay Asiatic Society in 1804 and of tl Asiatic Society of Great Britain in 1823. All this gave a stimulus i the study of ancient Indian history and culture, and Indologic studies no longer remained the preoccupation of Company office in India. Interest in Indian culture was aroused at a number European universities where several scholars worked on Sanskrit at related subjects. The best known of the early Orientalists al Indologists was-Max Mueller who never visited India and spent m« of. his time in England. The affinity between Sanskrit and certa European languages, once discovered, was stressed. This may partial explain the growing interest in Indology outside England. It al gave rise to the idea of a common Indo-European homeland ai heritage. The Aryans in India came to be regarded as the brethren the Europeans. Some upper class Indians like Keshub Chandra S took this literally and identified themselves with the British people distinction was drawn between Aryans and non-Aryans, and a vari1 of virtues wrere attributed to the former.This in turn gave rise to the Aryan/Dravidian dichotomy amply reflected in historical writings on early India. Several early Orientalists like Max Mueller spoke glowingly about the unchanging Indian village communities. They thought of India as a country of philosophers given to metaphysical speculation with little concern for their mundane existence. Indian society was depicted as idyllic, and as being devoid of any tension or social discord. Possibly ill at ease with the changes caused by rapid industrialization in the West, they found a Utopia in India and sought their own identity in it. Max Mueller thus took the Sanskritic name Moksha Mula. Some of his ideas were misconstrued by the British to emphasize (sometimes quite crudely) that Indians were not fit to govern themselves, given as they were primarily to metaphysical thought. By and large his perception of India, recently described as part of some kind of'Indomania', was not acceptable in nineteenth-century England where the intellectual scene was dominated by Christian missionaries led by Charles Grant and the Utilitarians, especially James Mill. Grant and Mill did not share the early Orientalist view of India, and their writings give ample evidence of hostility to Indian culture. They are therefore said to have created an Tndophobia'. The Christian missionaries had little sympathy for Hinduism, which, in their view, was 'at best the work of human folly and at worst the outcome of a diabolic inspiration'. The people of India, according to Charles Grant, lived in a 'degenerate' condition because of Hinduism, the source of dishonesty, perjury, selfishness, social divisions, debasement of women and sexual vice. Though not a missionary himself, Grant was an important personage in missionary circles, and exercised a lasting and strong influence on nineteenth-century British thought on India. His Anglicist bias made him plead strongly for the conversion of Indians to Christianity. It seems to have received memorable expression in the famous Minute on Indian Education (1835) authored by Thomas Babington Macaulay who had a high profile Evangelical family background. The Utilitarians seem to have had much in common with the hostile missionary attitude to India as is clear from James Mill's three- volume History of British India, first published in 1817. It became popular enough to go into its fifth edition by 1858, though H.H. 20 ANCIENT INDIA INTRODUCTION 21 Wilson, the first Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, was contemptuous of Mill's perception of Indian culture and went to the extent of saying that 'its tendency was evil'. Mill divided Indian history into three periods, the Hindu, Muslim and British.The seeds of communal historiography were thus sown. Unduly critical of the people and their culture, Mill postulated that contemporary as well as ancient India was barbarous and antirational. Indian civilization, according to him, showed no concern for political values and India had been ruled by a series of despots. Stagnant since its inception, Indian society was inimical to progress. All this was based on a grossly distorted version of the early Orientalist writings on India. In his book Mill was obviously making a case for changing Indian society through British legislation. This he was doing without ever having visited the country or knowing any of its languages—a fact he tried hard to justify by making the facile claim to writing a judging history'. Mill's History was one of the prescribed texts at the institutions, like Haileybury College where English officers received their training before coming to India. Hence the historical writings on India by British administrators betray the influence of Mill in considerable measure. The best known of the British-administrator historians on ancient India was Vincent A. Smith. He came to India in 1869 as a member of the Indian Civil Service and remained in service until 1900. He wrote all his nine books on Indian history after retirement. Of these his Early History of India, published in 1904, was based on a deep study of the primary sources available at the time. It was the first systematic survey of early Indian history and remained perhaps the most influential textbook for nearly fifty years and is sometimes used by scholars and students even today. Less hostile to India than Mill, Smith nevertheless believed that it had a long tradition of oppressive despots—a tradition which ended only with the advent of the British. The implication was that Indians were not fit to rule themselves. In keeping with the main trends of contemporary British historiography, Smith gave much attention to great men in history; and Alexander, Ashoka, Chandragupta II and Akbar became his heroes. Smith exaggerated the ruthlessness of ancient Indian kings. The theory of governance in the Arthashastra was to him like that of imperial Germany with which Britain was later at war. He described Kautilya's penal code as 'ferociously severe', conveniently ignoring the fact that other ancient law codes were no less so. The corpus of literature generated by the British scholars on early India was not univocal and it is possible to identify differences in the perceptions of individual authors. Nevertheless it remains true that the British wrote on early Indian history with a view to providing historical justification for the Raj and its exploitation of Indian resources. This quite often led to gross distortion of historical evidence. Such portrayals are viewed as part of the Orientalist discourse in which Orientalism is interpreted 'as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and for having authority over the Orient'. All this, however, does not negate the value and importance of the imperialist historiography. British views of the early Indian history came to be strongly challenged by Indian scholars influenced by Indian reformist leaders, and also by the growing nationalism and political awakening. Rama- krishna Paramahansa asserted that Hinduism embraced all religions in its fold. His disciple Vivekananda and later Annie Besant, sought to prove the superiority of the Hindu religion. Bankim Chandra preached that a revival of Hinduism was essential for the growth of India as a nation. Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, gave the call 'Back to theVedas'. Under the impact of such teachings, Indian scholars strongly defended Hinduism and it was often held that the Vedas represent its purest form—thus completely ignoring the fact that Hinduism was at best an umbrella term for the various strands of Indian religious thought, beliefs and practices prevalent in the Indian subcontinent. The Vedas were regarded as the repository of all knowledge and rational thought, and even as anticipating some modern scientific discoveries. Inevitably the myth of the Aryan race stirred the imagination of nationalist leaders as well as historians. Already the early Orientalists had established that Sanskrit and certain European languages had connected histories. Indian scholars now regarded the Indo-Aryans as originators of human civilization with India as its cradle. Inevitably they attempted to push back the antiquity of Indian culture. B.G. Tilak thus assigned the Vedic texts to the third millennium bc, while A.C. Das placed some of the Rigvedic hymns in the geological ages. Though the discovery of the Harappan civilization in 1923-4 proved the falsity of their assertions, the fantastic antiquity 22 ANCIENT INDIA INTRODUCTION 23 given to the ancient Indian culture generally, and to the Vedas particularly, remains a favourite pastime of. scholars even today. This does not apply to Rajendra Lai Mitra (1822—91),Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837-1925) andVishwanath Kashinath Rajwade (1869- 1926) who generally adopted a rational attitude to the past. Mitra published a tract to show irrefutably that in ancient times beef-eating was not a taboo. Bhandarkar, being a social reformer, supported widow remarriage and castigated the evils of the caste system and child marriage on the basis of his study of the ancient Indian texts, and made significant contributions to the reconstruction of the political and religious history of early India. V.K. Rajwade's insightful study in Marathi of the evolution of the institution of marriage is a classic. He is also remembered for collecting a large number of Sanskrit manuscripts and sources of Maratha history, later published in twenty- two volumes. Initially inspired by the ideas of social reform, Indian historical scholarship gradually became overtly anti-imperialist. With the radicalization of Indian politics after the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the simultaneous growth of militant nationalism, Indian historical writings were conditioned and influenced by contemporary political developments which sharpened the edge of the freedom struggle. Partly in reaction to the imperialist view of India's past and partly as a step towards the building up of national self-respect, Indian historians made zealous efforts to refurbish the image of India's past. Hindu culture was looked upon as the precursor of other Asian cultures; this buttressed the theory of pan-Hinduism. The ancient period of Indian history, equated with the Hindu period in James Mill's scheme of periodization, was regarded as one of prosperity and general contentment. Social inequalities were glossed over and Indian society was portrayed as a model of social harmony and peace. The age of the Guptas came in for special praise. It was considered the golden age of Indian history—an idea which continues to find importance in most textbooks. As Indian demand for political rights and representative government grew in strength during the twenties, nationalist historians began to attribute to ancient Hindus the highest achievements in the field of political thought and practice. In doing so, they often made extravagant claims, especially after the discovery of Kautilya's Arthashastra in 1905 and its publication in 1909. Parallels were drawn between Kautilya's social and economic policies and the social legislation of Bismarck. Kautilya's views on social and economic management were interpreted as a combination of state-socialism and laissez-faire. The mantriparishad (council of ministers) mentioned in the Arthashastra was compared with the Privy Council of Britain, and Kautilyan kingship with its- constitutional monarchy. Ancient Indian tribal oligarchies were equated with Athenian democracy. All this was intended to prove that Indians had long known the tradition of democratic government for which they were struggling against the British. Thus nationalist historians— K.P. Jayaswal being the foremost of them—provided an ideological weapon to the freedom movement. But their approach to the study of early Indian history and culture was no less unhistorical than that of the British historians. They culled isolated favourable references from original Sanskrit texts, and on their basis generalized about the entire ancient period. This was an implicit denial of the changing character of Indian society—an idea which Mill and other British scholars never tired of repeating and which found its way into Marx's unacceptable construct of the Asiatic Mode of Production and Oriental Despotism. The glorification of ancient India by nationalist historians meant the glorification of what appeared to them as Hindu India. In a sense therefore their writings seem to have been linked with the revivalist ideas ofVivekananda, Dayanand and others. In the 1930s and 1940s this linkage became quite clear: nationalist historiography gave an impetus to the ideas of Savarkar, the high priest of Hindu revivalism. He created the concept of'Hindutva' and 'Hindu Rashtra' and gave the dangerous slogan to 'Hinduize all politics and militarize Hindu- dom'. Under his inspiration the fanatically communal and fascist organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded by K.D. Hedgewar in 1925 at Nagpur. The pernicious role of the RSS in spreading the virus of communalism in the body politic of India can hardly be exaggerated. The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by RSS-trained Godse on 30 January 1948 and the demolition of the Baburi Masjid at Ayodhya on 6 December 1992 are two important and unforgettable milestones in the unfolding of the backward-looking Hindu revivalist and fascist politics of Contemporary India. At the historiographical level Hindu revivalism meant the 24 ANCIENT INDIA INTRODUCTION 25 acceptance of Mill's periodization that was based on the wrong premise that ancient Indian kings up to AD 1200 subscribed to the Hindu religion. That some of the major ruling dynasties like the Indo- Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas were not Hindu was ignored. Nor for that matter were even the Mauryas Hindu. In fact ancient Indians never described themselves as 'Hindu'. First used by the Arabs and later by others, the term 'Hindu' stood for the inhabitants of al-Hind (India). Foreign to early Indian literature, this name passed into Indian nomenclature much later. Moreover, if the establishment of Muslim rule marks the beginning of medievalism, several contemporary West Asian countries as well as Pakistan will have to be placed in the medieval age. I In spite of all this, nationalist historians never made any serious attempt to evolve a scientific periodization of Indian history and continued to adhere to Mill's chronological scheme. They ignored the essentially composite character of Indian culture, and consciously supported the cause of Hindu chauvinism and provided grist to the reactionary Mill, thus paving the way for communal historiography and ruling out the possibility of a rational basis for periodization. I In the post-Independence period, alongside the Hindu chauvinist view of Indian past, there has been going on a debate on periodization. ! This has been possible primarily because, unlike their predecessors, recent scholars have paid greater attention to the study of social, economic and cultural processes and have tried to recognize the linkage between these factors and political developments. This shift from the traditional political-dynastic history to non-political history. is basically linked with a critical reappraisal of the primary sources. I For example, the earlier tendency to use such categories as the 'Buddhist India', the 'Epic age' and the 'Sangam age' began to be challenged. For neither the Buddhist texts nor the Ramayana and the Mahabharata belong to a specific period; they in fact contain several chronological strata—a fact which is also true of the Sangam literature, the earliest corpus of texts in the Tamil language. By paying due i attention to the stratification of ancient Indian literary material (though | inhibited by its predominantly religious character) and interpreting it in conjunction with archaeological and anthropological evidence, it has been possible to identify the elements of change and continuity in early Indian society, economy and culture. Researches in this j direction have generated a lively debate which has been going on among historians. Some of them, however, see too much red in all this especially after the 'crisis' and 'collapse' of Communism and the consequent 'setback' to Marxism, and tend to strengthen the views of neo-colonialist historians who argue subtly that early Indian society was stagnant, with political authority always too dispersed to be perceived as state. The need to identify the major turning points in the life of the people which could form the basis for periodizing early Indian history was suggested by Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi in An Introduction ¦ to the Study of Indian History (1957) and the Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline (1965), which, despite severe criticism of their author's Marxist predilections, have achieved the status of classics. In Kosambi's view, the history of society, economy and culture was an integral part of the development of the forces and relations of production which can provide a rational basis for periodization. There seems to have emerged a consensus, at least for the time being, in favour of this view. It is therefore possible to argue that medievalism did not coincide with the advent of Islam but that it was the end of Gupta rule towards the end of the sixth century AD which marks the beginning of some significant developments in India. There arose several feudal principalities after the decline of the Guptas. The post- Gupta period saw a marked decrease in the volume of trade leading to the growth of a relatively closed village economy, thus providing a suitable background for the emergence of serfdom and a feudal agrarian set up. The birth of small principalities with inadequate inter-zonal communication on account of languishing trade provided the context for the growth of regional cultural units in what is now Andhra, Assam, Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan.This may also have given a fillip to the growth of regional languages, and regional idioms in art and architecture. Religious rituals and practices underwent considerable change. Bhakti (devotion), which reflected the complete dependence of the serfs or tenants on the landowners in the context of Indian feudal society, became an essential ingredient of religion. Most of these developments had their origin in Gupta times, but were to become prominent thereafter. f he end of the sixth century and the beginning of the seventh may therefore be treated as the watershed between the ancient and medieval period. This book presents a survey of the main developments in Indian 26 ANCIENT INDIA history until the emergence of feudalism. Dynastic history, not being our primary concern, is discussed in broadest outline. The rise and fall of empires have been explained with reference to their material basis. An attempt has been made to avoid the pitfalls of nationalist- chauvinist historiography; and the myths created by it during our freedom struggle have been re-examined. In an endeavour to integrate the results of recent historical research into the present study I have tried to look for a meaningful pattern, often re-interpreting the already known facts. In looking around the ancient Indian landscape I have given special attention to elements of change and of continuity in society and economy, to social tensions, mechanisms of exploitation, and the social role of religion and superstition. CHAPTER 2 From Prehistory to the Harappan Civilization Vv hen did man begin to live in India? The answer is suggested by a large number of primitive stone tools found in different parts of the country, from Kashmir to Tamilnadu. The antiquity of these tools and their makers goes back more than two million years ago, to what is known as the Pleistocene period. We have some information about the Old Stone (Palaeolithic) Age. The people lived in very small nomadic communities. They used tools and implements of stone, roughly dressed by chipping, found throughout the country except the alluvial plains of the Indus, Ganga and Yamuna rivers. Such tools were used for hunting, cutting and other purposes. People wore animal skin, bark or leaves as protection from weather; and had no knowledge of cultivation and house building. In course of time came the ability to control fire and tame animals. In India as elsewhere in the world, man thus lived for millennia in the hunting and food- gathering stage, though his tools give evidence of gradual evolution culminating in what is called the Mesolithic phase, marked by the important practice of domesticating animals. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic people practised painting, of which evidence comes from several sites. Bhimbetka, 45 km south of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, the most striking of them, gives ample evidence of rock paintings extending from the Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic periods. Sites like Bhimbetka, Azamgarh, Pratapgarh and Mirzapur provide unquestionable testimony for the Mesolithic art which provides evidence of hunting, food-gathering, fishing and other human activities like sexual union, child birth and burial and thus gives a good idea of social, economic and other activities of the people. The social organization m the Mesolithic period tended to become more stable than in the preceding Palaeolithic period and ecological and material conditions largely shaped the religious beliefs of the people. 28 ANCIENT INDIA Human communities entered a new stage of development, known* as the Neolithic Age, during which they became less dependent onl hunting and food-gathering and began to produce their own food.' Although the beginning of the New Stone Age is assigned to 9000 BC in the world context, in South Asia the earliest Neolithic settlement is at Mehrgarh (Baluchistan, a province of Pakistan), dated to around 7000 BC. Some Neolithic settlements on the northern spurs of the Vindhyan range may be as old as 5000 BC but those in south India may not be older than 2500 BC; some in southern and eastern India may be as late as 1000 BC. Neolithic people used tools and implements of polished stone; stone axes seem to have been quite popular as is evident from large numbers of them found in the hilly tracts of the country. Since people were dependent solely on stone tools and implements, their settlements could not extend beyond the hill areas and they could not produce more than what was needed for their subsistence. But they were able to cultivate some important crops like rice, wheat and barley. This, combined with domestication of animals, brought about a major change in subsistence strategies. Towards the end of the Neolithic period, a significant development seems to have taken place—that of the use of metal. The first metal to be used was copper, and archaeologists have discovered several Chalcolithic cultures, based as they were on the use of stone and copper implements. Unlike the bronze- using Harappans, whom we will discuss in the sequel, Chalcolithic groups were primarily rural farming communities living in different parts of the country. Evidence of their settlements has come from many places. The important ones are Ahar, Gilund and Balathal in Rajasthan, Kayatha and Eran in western Madhya Pradesh, Jorwe, Nevasa, Daimabad, Chandoli, Songaon, Inamgaon, Prakash and Nasik in western Maharashtra, Narhan in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Pandu Rajar Dhibi and Mahishdal in West Bengal. In southern India also, many sites in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have yielded a Chalcolithic horizon. In addition to the material found at these sites, more than forty hoards of copper objects like rings, celts, hatchets, swords, harpoons, spearheads and anthropomorphs have been found in a wide area ranging from West Bengal and Orissa in the east to Haryana and Gujarat in the west, from Andhra Pradesh in the south to Uttar Pradesh in the north. The largest of these hoards, consisting of 424 objects, comes from Gungeria FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 29 >n of the copper Coloured Pottery, 1500 BC. : people seems to smiths and good le beads of semi- Maharashtra), we erracotta makers.. sheep, goats and aught animal was rong evidence of yra as also several ;a. Spread as they the Chalcolithic in eastern India ;re even today. In ind in the lower he archaeological r dead under the >ng with pots and anings of social le of settlements the smaller ones. nude clay figures p of the mother ead over a long lillennium BC to [y pre-Harappan, culture and still e technologically not be ruled out s of a civilization ley were good at mixing tin with nze which paved in Crete, Egypt, — —... , r— _- the Chalcolithic il 29 28 Human comm as the Neolithic i hunting and food Although the be£ BC in the world cc is at Mehrgarh (B 7000 BC. Some Is Vindhyan range r may not be older may be as late as 1 of polished stone; evident from largi country. Since p< implements, their and they could n subsistence. But t like rice, wheat i animals, brought i Towards the en seems to have tak to be used was c Chalcolithic cultu copper implemen will discuss in th< farming communi of their settlemeni are Ahar, Gilund western Madhya Songaon, Inamga Narhan in eastern in West Bengal. In and Karnataka ha the material foun objects like rings, anthropomorphs 1 Bengal and Oriss; from Andhra Prad largest of these ho; ANCIENT INDIA FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION ¦in Madhya Pradesh. On the basis of the association of the copper ^ boards with a ceramic type called the Ochre Coloured Pottery, ¦ archaeologists have placed them between 2000 and 1500 BC. I The range of artisanal activity of the Chalcolithic people seems to JRIi have been fairly wide. They were expert copper smiths and good workers in stone, and manufactured cloth and made beads of semiprecious stones. At some places, as at Inamgaon (Maharashtra), we find potters, smiths, ivory carvers, lime makers and terracotta makers.. The villagers domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, goats and pigs, and hunted deer. The use of the camel as a draught animal was also known. They ate beef, though there is no strong evidence of r~s- their eating pork. They cultivated wheat, rice and bajra as also several ^ pulses such as lentil (masur), black gram and grass pea. Spread as they I f I were over a wide area, regional variations among the Chalcolithic /.. communities were inevitable. They produced rice in eastern India which, together with fish, remains a staple food there even today. In western India were cultivated barley and wheat and in the lower Deccan, ragi, bajra and several millets. According to the archaeological evidence from Maharashtra the people buried their dead under the "i floor of their house in a north-to-south position along with pots and copper objects. Grave goods indicate the beginnings of social inequalities, and the striking difference in the size of settlements implies that the larger communities dominated over the smaller ones. On the basis of the finds of terracotta and unbaked nude clay figures of women, it has been postulated that the worship of the mother goddess was prevalent. The Chalcolithic settlements of India are spread over a long chronological span ranging from the early third millennium BC to the eighth century BC. Some of them are certainly pre-Harappan, while others are contemporaries of the Harappan culture and still others are post-Harappan. The contact between the technologically advanced Harappans and Chalcolithic groups may not be ruled out altogether, but the latter could not acquire the traits of a civilization °n "account of their inherent limitations. Though they were good at Working in copper, they did not know the art of mixing tin with copper to forge the much stronger metal called bronze which paved the way for the rise of the earliest civilization in Crete, M. Egypt, esopotamia and the Indus valley. The people of the Chalcolithic 30 ANCIENT INDIA FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 31 age did not know the art of writing; nor did they live in cities.These elements of civilization, however, appeared for the first time in the Indus region. The Indus or Harappa culture originated in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent and seems to have covered an area larger than those of the contemporary civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Discovered in 1921, this culture was spread over parts of Panjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan and western parts of Uttar Pradesh, and coexisted with communities which thrived on hunting-gathering or pastoral nomadism. Nearly a thousand Harappan sites scattered over this vast area have so far been explored or excavated, though a very limited number of them belong to the developed phase of the civilization and only half a dozen can be described as cities. Of these, Harappa on the bank of the Ravi in the Montgomery district (western Panjab), was the first to be excavated, whence the name Harappan is derived. Covering a circuit of a little less than 5 km, the site has yielded a large variety of objects in the course of excavations and is one of the two most important Harappan cities; the other is Mohenjodaro, in the Larkana district on the river Indus, the largest Harappan settlement. The third important Harappan site is Chanhudaro, about 130 km south of Mohenjodaro in Sindh. Lothal in Gujarat situated at the head of the Gulf of Cambay, Kalibangan in the dry bed of the river Ghaggar in northern Rajasthan and Banawali (Hissar district) in Haryana are the most important sites giving evidence of the flourishing phase of the Harappan civilization in India. Other sites include the coastal cities of Surkotada in Gujarat and Sutkagendor near the Makran coast, close to the Pakistan-Iran border. Rangpur and Rojdi in the Kathiawar peninsula in Gujarat represented the later phase of Harappan civilization. Despite the fact that a large number of sites associated with it have been discovered since 1946, the culture itself is still best known by the two cities, Mohenjodaro and Harappa. Both situated now in Pakistan, the Hindu revivalists are busy locating the epicentre of this culture in the elusive Saraswati valley. The general layout of the two cities seems to have been similar. To the west of each was a citadel, fortified by crenellated walls. On this were erected the public buildings. At Harappa the citadel was a parallelogram, 420 m in length from north to south and 196 m from east to west; it was 13.7-15.2 m high. At Mohenjodaro it rose to a height of 6 m in the south and to 12 m in the north. At both the places the citadel was based on a mound, which may have been deliberately constructed for the purpose. The enclosed citadel area may have been used for religious and governmental purposes. Below the citadel was the town proper, extending no less than a square mile, at both the sites. The main streets, some more than 9 m wide, were laid out on a grid plan. They were quite straight and intersected each other at right angles, thus dividing the city into large rectangular blocks. This kind of alignment of streets indicates conscious town planning and was not known in Mesopotamia or Egypt. The streets and buildings were provided with drains made of burnt bricks at Mohenjodaro and Harappa as well as at several other Indus sites, though at Kalibangan mud bricks were used for building purposes. The houses were equipped with rubbish-bins and bathrooms, and occasionally with a privy on the ground or upper floor. The bathrooms were connected by drains with sewers under the main streets. The drains were covered either with bricks or stone slabs. The drainage system is one of the most impressive achievements of the Harappans and presupposes the existence of some kind of municipal organization. Stone buildings are conspicuous by their absence at the Harappan sites. Baked as well as unbaked bricks were the usual building material, though we have evidence of the use of mud bricks at several places such as Kalibangan. The houses of varying sizes, often of two or. * j fc— ¦*. - , * r.-. \f-*. ¦'...-.¦-. * ¦ ;. -* ' ' rM v? \ \-' ¦¦,..-.¦>._. - ¦- ¦.? ss. ¦;, ¦ —.a asp, —; «*.—-.-..-ji** ¦ --. - ' H- „a £wS,«. ¦. - *W '., ¦. Vfl' ¦¦ \ ¦.-.* Plate L.View of site showing Great Bath. Mohenjodaro, Pakistan, Harappa period. 32 ANCIENT INDIA FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 33 more storeys, consisted of rooms constructed round a rectangular courtyard. The large houses were meant for the rich and had much the same plan—a rectangular courtyard surrounded, in some cases, by a maximum of twelve rooms. The parallel rows of two-room cottages unearthed at Mohenjodaro and Harappa were perhaps used by the poorer sections of society and anticipated the 'coolie' lines of modern Indian towns. From this may be inferred class differences in Harappan society. In Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan, the citadel area, contained monumental structures which stood on a high mud brick platform. Of the large buildings that have been so far discovered, the Great Bath in the citadel at Mohenjodaro is the most striking. A specimen of beautiful brickwork, it is a rectangular tank and measures 11.88 X 7.01 m and 2.43 m deep.At the north and south ends of the Great Bath brick steps led to the bottom of the tank, which could be emptied by a drain. The Bath, it has been suggested, was meant for ritual bathing In Mohenjodaro the largest building is a granary, 45.71 m long and 15.23 m wide, though its identification has been challenged.The 'Great Granary' is among the well-known buildings at Harappa and consisted of a series of brick platforms on which stood two rows of six granaries. Circular brick platforms to their south were meant for threshing grain. At Kalibangan also have been found brick platforms; these may have been used for granaries which constituted an important feature of Harappan cities. Several Harappan sites share some of their features. Chanhudaro lacks the citadel, but like these urban centres, it has produced evidence of the use of drains and baked brick houses. At Lothal (in Gujarat), 720 km south-east of Mohenjodaro, has been revealed a great artificial platform with streets and houses of regular plan. In addition to the urban settlement, some archaeologists claim, a brick dockyard connected with the Gulf of Cambay by a channel has also been discovered here. Sutkagen-Dor, 48 km from the Arabian Sea on the Makran coast, consisted of a formidable citadel and a lower fortified settlement and may have been a sea-port for trading. The Harappan towns situated along the sea coast include Sotka Koh (near Pasni in Pakistan) and Balakot (72 km north-west of Karachi, lying at a distance of 13 and 19 km respectively from the Arabian Sea).The coastal settlements served as ports and participated in regular maritime trade with West Asia. Town planning in most of these places seems to have been marked by a striking uniformity; this can also be said of structures. On the basis of the general uniformity in town planning, it has been postulated that the Harappan people had a developed state organization and that Mohenjodaro was the capital of their extensive empire with Harappa and Kalibangan as its 'subsidiary' centres. The possibility that the priests may have ruled in Harappa is precluded by the fact that no religious structures except the Great Bath have been found at any Harappan site; this is in contrast to the cities of Lower Mesopotamia where definite evidence of the priestly political authority is available. The prevalence of a fire cult at Lothal appears probable in the later phase, but there is nothing to indicate the use of temples. Harappan trade contacts with Western Asia may indicate their greater concern for commerce than for conquest. But this can hardly support the view that a class of merchants ruled at Harappa. In fact, any idea of the political organization of the Harappans will remain highly speculative till their Script is deciphered. The earliest specimen of Harappan script was noticed in 1853 and the complete script was recovered by 1923 from a large number of inscriptions written generally from right to left on a wide range of objects. The most common form of writing is on the intaglio seals, made mostly of carved and fired steatite, presumably used by the propertied people to mark and identify their^property. More than 2000 seals have been found at Harappan settlements and there have been more than fifty bold claims to decipherment of the Harappan script. Some scholars try to connect the script with Dravidian or proto- Dravidian languages, others with Sanskrit, and still others with the Sumerian language. None of these readings can< however, inspire confidence. As a result of several decades of digging at various places in India and Pakistan, however, now there is an impressive-amount of material relating to the life of Harappans. Our knowledge of their food habits and subsistence strategies is based on botanical and faunal studies, motifs of plants and animals on painted pottery, figurines, and portrayals n seals. Judging by the environmental diversity, it appears that the rappans could not have adopted a uniform subsistence pattern. e diversity in subsistence activities is often seen as an important #' 34 ANCIENT INDIA FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 35 adaptive strategy to support urban centres. Together with hunting somewhat archaic, produced enough surplus to support the urban and gathering they practised agriculture on a considerable scale and population. produced, in addition to peas, two types of wheat and barley. A good Although they continued to make tools of stone the Harappans quantity of barley has been discovered at Banawali in Haryana. They jivecj jn the Bronze Age. They manufactured bronze by mixing tin also produced sesamum and mustard which were used for oil. Evidence wjm copper. Tin was possibly brought from Afghanistan though of rice cultivation is not available from places like Mohenjbdaro and Hazaribag in Bihar may have been another source of its supply. Harappa. But at Lothal and Rangpur (near Ahmedabad) people used Copper was brought from the Khetri copper mines of Rajasthan, but rice as early as 1800 BC. Dates and field peas were also grown and jt could have also come from Baluchistan. Both metals, however, formed items of Harappan diet. A fragment of cotton cloth found at were difficult to obtain. Bronze tools were therefore not prolific at Mohenjodaro proves beyond doubt that the Harappans grew cotton. Harappan sites. Their tool types comprised flat axes, chisels, knives, The Harappan cultural zone fell in a comparatively low rainfall spearheads and arrowheads of copper and bronze. Various techniques area, and it is likely that irrigation was necessary for cultivation. But 0f working in copper were known, such as hammering, lapping and it is doubtful that the Harappans practised canal irrigation. Most casting. Brick kilns, associated with copper working, have been agricultural land in the alluvial plains seems to have been watered by discovered at various places. Working in bronze, however, was not flood though some archaeologists argue for the existence of irrigation very common and bronzesmiths therefore may have been an important canals of the Harappan period. According to some of them, the social group. The authors of the Harappan culture possessed the massive tank at Lothal, identified by its excavator with a dockyard, knowledge of gold. Beads, pendants, armlets, brooches, needles and may have been a reservoir filled by river floodwaters. In any case it is other personal ornaments were often made of gold, though the use probable that the Harappans were familiar with several methods to of silver was perhaps more common. control water for agriculture. Whether or not they used a plough has Besides metal working, the Harappans practised numerous other sometimes been controversial. No hoe or ploughshare has been found, arts and crafts. Seal-cutting occupied a place of importance. The but the evidence of a furrowed field in Kalibangan indicates that the Harappan seals form a class by themselves and seem to have been Harappans used a wooden ploughshare. Who drew the plough—men linked with trading activities. No less important was the bead-maker's or oxen or some other animals—is not known. craft. At Chanhudaro and Lothal bead-makers' shops have been No less important than agriculture was animal husbandry which discovered. Beads of gold, silver, copper, faience, steatite, semi-precious played an important role in the Harappan subsistence system. The stones, shells and pottery have been found in abundance. The long people were familiar with a range of animals. A majority of Harappan barrel beads of carnelian rank among the finest technical achievements terracottas represent cattle; the cow was not represented. Besides of the Harappans. Evidence of textile manufacture has come from sheep and goats, dogs, cats, humped cattle, water, buffalo and elephants Mohenjodaro which has yielded a piece of woven cloth. Spindle were certainly domesticated. Asses and camels were used as beasts whorls were used for spinning and cloth of wool and cotton were of burden. Finds of bones of a large number of wild animals from Woven. Judging by the surviving massive brick structures at the various settlements indicate that the people were acquainted with Harappan settlements, brick manufacturing and masonry appear to deer, rhinoceros and tortoise, though the horse seems to have been have been important crafts. The Harappans also made boats. The unknown to them. The animals mentioned above required different potter's craft was fairly well- developed; and the potters were quite a kinds of environment for their survival and the familiarity of Harappans visible artisanal group. Wheel- turned and mass produced, most with them is also an indication of the latter s ability to adapt themselves Harappan pottery represents a blending of the ceramic traditions of to a variety of living conditions. This explains the diversification ot he north-west and those of the cultures to the east of the Indus. the Harappan subsistence economy which, in spite of its being ost Harappan pottery is plain and may have been meant for local 36 ANCIENT INDIA rOM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 37, number indicating their universal popularity either as toys or ing: lit objects.. a eople with numerous arts and crafts, the Harappans engaged in rnodity production for which they obtained raw material from coXn. , Goid may have been imported from south India, especially I m sore, where it was in good supply in antiquity and is still mined. Afghanistan and Iran were other likely sources of this metal. Silver I ^ imported probably from Afghanistan and Iran. Copper may have Ceen brought from south India and from Baluchistan and Arabia, though within the Harappan zone itself, Rajasthan was an important source of its supply. Lapis lazuli is rare in Harappan archaeological material, and came from Badakshan in north-east Afghanistan; turquoise from Iran, amethyst from Maharashtra; agate, chalcedonies and carnelian from Saurashtra and western India. Alabaster was possibly brought from several places both to the east and the west. Jade came from Central Asia. Plate 2: Female figure, front and back views. From Mohenjodaro, Pakistan, Mature Harappa period, c. 2100-1750 BC Bronze. Ht: 11.5 cm. National Museum, New Delhi. The Harappan trade links extended to the cities of Mesopotamia where some two dozen Harappan seals have been found in cities like Susa, Ur, Nippur, Kish, etc. Some ancient sites in the Persian Gulf region (e.g. Failaka and Bahrain) have also yielded seals of Harappan origin. From the Indus region only three cylinder seals and a few metal objects from Mesopotamia have been found.The archaeological evidence of trade with West Asia is not very impressive; and the general absence of Mesopotamian trade items at Harappan sites is striking. How far this was due to the fact that Mesopotamia exported only perishable goods to the Indus zone is a matter of speculation, use. But a substantial part of it, treated with red slip and blao But the Mesopotamian literature speaks of merchants of Ur carrying painted decoration, may have been prestige items meant for Ion on trade with foreign countries. Sargon of Akkad (2350 BC) is said to distance trade. have taken pride in the fact that the ships of Dilmun, Magan and Harappan craft production included some works of art. The m« Meluha passed through his capital. Dilmun is commonly identified striking of them is a bronze statuette of a pert and provocate with the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and Magan may be 'dancing girl', naked but for a necklace and a large number of banglf the Makran coast. Meluha is generally understood to mean India, covering one arm. The figurines of a buffalo and a ram and the tv» especially the Indus region and Saurashtra. Whatever the volume of little toy carts are also well known bronze pieces of Harappan arl trade, numerous representations of ships and boats on Harappan seals A few stone sculptures have also been found. Of them the bearde and a terracotta model of a ship from Lothal give us some idea of the head (presumably of a priest) from Mohenjodaro has much artisti mode of riverine and maritime transport. Bullock-carts may have value; this is also true of the two small male torsos discovered i played a crucial role in inland transport. Trade and exchange activities Harappa. The use of bronze or stone for artistic creation seems fl were regulated by a developed system of weights and measures. have been extremely limited.Terracottas, in contrast, have been fourt 38 ANCIENT INDIA FROM PREHISTORY TO HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION 39 Numerous articles of chert, limestone, steatite, etc., were used a, weights based on 16 or its multiples. The provenance of sticks inscribe; with measure marks is a testimony to the fact that the Harappan; knew the art of measurement. The prevalence of a uniform system o weights and measures in even the far flung Harappan sites suggest, that there was a central authority to regulate exchange activities. Some idea of the Harappan religious beliefs and practices may bf formed on the basis of seal and terracotta figurines. Numerous nudt female figurines in. terracotta are believed to represent a populat fertility goddess. SomeVedic texts show reverence to a female goddes but it was only after centuries of hibernation that she surfaced as thf supreme goddess during the early medieval period. The male deity o; the Harappan people was the horned god depicted on the seals, nudt but for many bangles, necklaces and a peculiar head-dress consisting of a pair of horns. On one of these seals he is surrounded by foui wild animals—an elephant, a tiger, a rhinoceros and a buffalo; beneatt his seat are two deer. He apparently shared many of the traits of thi later Indian Shiva who appears bizarre, eccentric and terrifying in hi numerous portrayals found in the classical Sanskrit poetry. Numerou symbols of the phallus and female sex organs made of stone found ii Harappa indicate the prevalence of phallus worship—a practice which despite its condemnation in the Rigveda as being prevalent among thf non- Aryans, became a respectable form of worship in later times; it fact clay phalli continue to be worshipped and then dumped ever) morning in some parts of the country even today. In the Indu cultural zone trees were also worshipped; the pipal tree, depicted ot several seals, was the object of special veneration as is the case in ou own times. The same is true of animals like the humped bull, whicl is considered sacred to this day. However, it remains doubtful tha Harappan divinities were placed in temples as was common in ancieri Egypt and Mesopotamia.The Harappan religion may have anticipate! some features of later Indian religion. But to trace contemporar] Indian religious practices to Harappan times often ignores the element of change that crept into them from time to time. For example, th' discovery of many graves in Harappa and other places proves beyon' doubt that the Harappans buried their dead, in north-soutl orientation, along with different types of goods. This practice is ii sharp contrast to the subsequent practice of cremation. It is a differefl matter that if a communalist Hindu is told that all his ancestors did not practise cremation may well jump down our throat! There seems to be a consensus among scholars that by about the beginning of the second millennium BC the urban phase of the Harappan culture came to an end, though signs of its decay are noticeable even earlier when cities like Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan began to experience decline in urban planning and structural activity, and tended to become slums. The Great Bath and the granary at Mohenjodaro fell into disuse. The city, archaeologists tell us, shrank to a small settlement of 3 hectares from the original 85 hectares. Decline is also evident at Harappa, Kalibangan and Chanhudaro and at most of the settlements. The disappearance of systematic urban planning and building activity was accompanied by almost sudden vanishing of the Harappan script, weights and measures, bronze tools and the red ware pottery with black designs. The Harappan cities seem to have been finally deserted by 1800 BC; around this time Meluha (identified with India) ceases to be visible in the Mesopotamian records. The population of Harappan urban centres either perished or moved away to other areas. Not surprisingly traits of the post-urban Harappan culture are found at many places in Pakistan, in central and western India, in Panjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jammu, Kashmir, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh during 2000— 1500 BC, which witnessed the spread of non-Harappan Chalcolithic settlements of early farming communities in different parts of the country. It is likely that some of them were direct descendants of the late Harappan culture. The progressive degeneration and final collapse of the Harappan civilization has been attributed to several factors. It is generally held that calamitous alterations in the course of the Indus and the Ravi rivers led to the desiccation of the countryside which ceased to produce food for the urban centres. This made the major Harappan cities weak under the pressure of population which was forced to migrate. Excavations reveal that Mohenjodaro itself was flooded more than once; traces of several phases of catastrophic flooding have been detected here. Chanhudaro was also twice destroyed by massive inundations. The floods perhaps derived from violent geomorpho- logical changes in the lower Indus region, leading, in turn, to the economic decline of the Harappan settlements. Evidence has been 40 ANCIENT INDIA adduced to show that by the middle of the second millennium BC there was an increase in the arid conditions in the Harappan cultural zone thus drying up the river Ghaggar-Hakra in one of its core regions with disastrous consequences for rural and urban economies. But a major blow to the Harappan civilization, according to a dominant view, was given by a group of 'barbarians' who began to migrate into India a little before the middle of the second millennium BC. At several places in north Baluchistan thick layers of burning have been taken to imply the violent destruction of whole settlements by fire. Half a dozen groups of human skeletons belonging to the later phase of occupation at Mohenjodaro may also indicate that the city was invaded. A group of huddled skeletons in one of the houses and the skeleton of a woman lying on the steps of a well may suggest that some of the inhabitants were captured and done to death by marauders. Indirect evidence of the displacement of Harappans by peoples from the west is available from several places. To the south-west of the citadel at Harappa, for example, a cemetery, known as Cemetery H, has come to light. It is believed to have belonged to an alien people who destroyed the older Harappa. At Chanhudaro also evidence of the superimposition of barbarian life is available. Interestingly, even the Rigveda, the earliest text of the Aryans, contains references to the destruction of cities of the non-Aryans. It speaks of a battle at a place named Hariyupiya which has been' identified with Harappa—an identification questioned by several scholars All this may imply that the 'invaders' were the horse riding barbarians of the Indo-Aryan linguistic stock who may have come from Iran through the hills. But neither the archaeological nor the linguistic evidence proves convincingly that there was a mass-scale confrontation between the Harappans and the Aryans who came to India, most probably, in Several waves. CHAPTER 3 The Aryans and the Vedic Life The validity of the idea of the Aryan invasion of the urban centres of the Harappan people leading to the final disappearance of their culture has been enmeshed in controversy, though it has been put to various uses by different groups of scholars and social and political activists.The invasion theory was first clearly expounded by an eminent British archaeologist who trained most of the first generation post- Independence professional Indian archaeologists, and remained more or less unchallenged in his lifetime. But during the last twenty-five years, especially after his death, it has come in for much criticism. Some archaeologists—Indians in particular—have criticized the theory with a vengeance as it were, though in the Western academic circles the theory continues to occupy an important place. Both the critics and the defenders of the Aryan invasion(s) thesis have used all weapons in their armoury to support their view. But their efforts have often been informed by political considerations. Both in India and Europe, the Aryans have been thought of as a race in the genetic sense and have been credited with many cultural achievements. In India socio-economic reformers led by Dayanand Saraswati, who founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, laid stress on Aryan culture as the root of all Indian tradition and sought the sanction of the Vedas, the earliest extant Aryan literature, for their ideas. Some scholars continue to believe in pan-Aryanism and go so far as to claim that India was the cradle of world culture. Blind racial prejudice has led them to believe and propagate that every peak of Indian cultural achievement must be Aryan; accordingly the authors of even the Harappan culture have been taken to be the Aryans.This idea has always betrayed a strong upper caste Hindu bias, because the Aryans did not include the shudras and untouchables. The bias is glaringly evident in the activities of Hindu communal and revivalist organizations in recent years. But from the nineteenth century itself when Dayanand's 42 ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 43 Arya Samaj came into being, there has been a sharp reaction to the upper caste orientation of the theory of Aryan race. A contemporary of Dayanand and a leader of the non-brahmana movements in Maharashtra during the Peshwa rule who founded the Satya Shodhak Samaj in 1873,Jyotiba Phule exploited the theory in a radical manner. He regarded the Aryans as aliens subjugating the indigenous people described in the brahmanical texts as Dasas and shudras, the real inheritors of the land. The ideas of Phule gave ideological support to non-brahamana movements in other parts of the country and played a progressive role in his times, though in contemporary India these may have been used, consciously or unconsciously, to justify frequent caste confrontations. In European countries, as in India, the Aryan concept has played a significant role since the nineteenth century when the Romantic movement in literature and racist ideas derived much inspiration from it. The culmination of racism took place under the German Nazi regime which gave a hideous racial implication to the term 'Aryan' and to its official philosophy which sanctioned the cruellest genocide, in history. Although unfortunately, the concept, central to the pre-World War II fascisms, is being revived by a large number of racial hate groups mushrooming in different parts of the world even in our own times, in academic circles the whole concept of race based on skeletal measurements and colour (of the hair, skin and eyes) is now regarded as invalid. In view of the research in the biological sciences, it is extremely difficult to think of any ethnic group as having retained its purity of blood for any length of time. The existence of groups of people speaking closely related languages, called Indo-European/Indo-Aryan, cannot however be doubted. Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Germanic (German, English, Swedish), Slav (Russian, Polish) and Romance (Italian, Spanish, French, Rumanian) languages belong to the Aryan family. On the basis of similarity between these languages, it has been postulated that the original Aryans had a common homeland somewhere in the steppes stretching from southern Russia to Central Asia. From this region the Aryan-speaking peoples may have migrated to different parts of Europe and Asia. One of their branches migrated to Iran where they lived for a long time. From the Iranian tableland they moved in the south-eastern direction towards India where they encountered the city civilization of the Indus valley. The dispersal of the Aryans in India was not a single event. It took place in several stages, covering several centuries and involving many tribes. These tribes were often considerably different from each other but, at the same time, shared many cultural traits. The chief source of information on the early history of the Aryans in India are the Vedas, perhaps the oldest literary remains of the Indo-European language group. The word 'Veda' means knowledge. There are four Vedas: Rig, Yajur, Satna, and Atharva. The Rigveda is a collection of 1028 hymns, mostly prayers to gods, for use at sacrifices. The Yajurveda contains sacrificial formulae in prose and verse to be recited by the priest who performed the manual part of the sacrifice. The Samaveda is a collection of verses from the Rigveda for liturgical purposes.The Atharvaveda consists mainly of magical spells and charms. Attached to each Veda are various explanatory prose manuals called Brahmanas, whose concluding portions are called the Aranyakas (forest books). Secret and dangerous owing to their magical power, the Aranyakas could be taught only in a forest. The Upanishads are commentaries appended to the Aranyakas, but of a more esoteric character. Vedic literature has been traditionally held sacred for it is believed to have divine source. The Vedas, according to the popular Indian perception, are eternal (nitya). The various sages (rishis) who were their authors no more than received them from god. Transmitted orally from generation to generation, the Vedas werenot committed to writing until very late. The Vedic texts may be divided into two broad chronological strata: the early Vedic (c. 1500-1000 BC) when most of the hymns of the Rigveda were composed; the later Vedic (c. 1000-600 BC) to which belong the remaining Vedas and their branches. The two periods correspond to two phases of Aryan expansion in India. The geographical horizon of the Rigvedic hymns gives us an idea of initial Aryan settlement in the subcontinent. The earliest Aryans lived in eastern Afghanistan, Panjab and the fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. Though not adequately supported by the archaeological evidence, this is clearly borne out by the Rigveda which refers to the western tributaries of the Indus, the Gomati (modern Gomal), the Krumu (modern Kurram) and the Kubha (modern Kabul). The 44 ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 45 Suvastu (Swat) is the most important river mentioned to the north of Kabul. The name implies 'fair dwellings' and may be evidence for Aryan settlements in the Swat valley. But the main focus of the Rigvedic culture seems to have been the Panjab and Delhi region. Here the most frequently mentioned rivers are the Sindhu (Indus), the Saraswati (now lost in the Rajasthan deserts and existing only in the imagination of the credulous as flowing underground up to Prayag or Allahabad and joining invisibly the Ganga and Yamuna there), the Drishadvati (Ghaggar) and the five streams which collectively gave their name to the Panjab (five waters): the Shutudri (Satlej), Vipas (Beas), Parushni (Ravi), Asikni (Chenab), and Vitasta (Jhelum).The geographical knowledge of the early Aryans does not seem to have extended beyond the Yamuna, which is mentioned in the Rigveda. The early Aryan settlers were engaged in taking possession of the Land of the Seven Rivers (saptasindhava) represented by the Indus and its principal tributaries.This often led to conflict between various Aryan tribes. The most important of the tribal wars to which the Rigveda refers was the Battle of Ten Kings (dasarajna). Sudas, we are told, was the king of the Bharata tribe settled in the western Panjab. Vishvamitra was his chief priest, who had led him to victorious campaigns on the Vipas and the Shutudri. Later Sudas dismissed Vishvamitra and appointed Vasishtha, who possessed greater knowledge of the priestly lore. Vishvamitra, feeling slighted, formed a confederacy often tribes, five of whom were important and are frequently referred to in the Rigveda as panchajanah (five tribes). In the battle that followed on the banks of the Purushni, Sudas was victorious. It is likely that there took place other intertribal wars of this kind. The chief opponents of the Aryans were however the indigenous inhabitants of non-Aryan origin. Many passages in the Rigveda show a general, feeling of hostility towards the people known as Panis. Described as wealthy, they refused to patronize the Vedic priests or perform Vedic rituals, and stole cattle from the Aryans. More hated than the Panis were the Dasas and Dasyus. The Dasas have been equated with the tribal people called the Dahaes, mentioned in the ancient Iranian literature, and are sometimes considered a branch of the early Aryans. Divodasa, a chief of the Bharata clan, is said to have defeated the non-Aryan Sambara. The suffix dasa in the name of the chief of the Bharata clan indicates his Aryan antecedents. In the Rigveda instances of the slaughter of the Dasyus (dasyu-hatya) outnumber references to conflicts with the Dasas, thus giving the impression that the Rigvedic Aryans were not as hostile to them. Dasyu corresponds to dahyu in the ancient Iranian language. It has therefore been suggested that conflicts between the Rigvedic tribes and the Dasyus were those between the two main branches of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Aryan peoples who came to India in successive waves. The Dasas and Dasyus were most likely people who originally belonged to the Aryan speaking stock and in course of their migration into the subcontinent they acquired cultural traits very different from those of the Rigvedic people. Not surprisingly, the Rigveda describes them as 'black- skinned','malignant', and'nonsacrificing' and speaking a language totally different from that of the Aryans. In a sense the Aryan subjugation of the earlier inhabitants meant a reversal to a comparatively less advanced way of life. For the Harappans were culturally far more advanced than the Aryans who figure in the Rigveda as destroyers of towns, not their builders. The chief Aryan god Indra is described as the breaker of forts (purandara) and is said to have shattered ninety forts for his protege Divodasa. We are told that he 'rends forts as age consumes a garment'. The Rigveda speaks of several ruined cities and associates them with earlier inhabitants of the area, presumably the Harappans. As might be expected of a people without cities, the early Aryans did not have an advanced technology even though their use of horses and chariots, and possibly of some better arms of bronze did give them an edge over their opponents. Their knowledge of metals seems to have been limited. The Rigveda mentions only one metal called eyas (copper/bronze). In view of the widespread use of bronze in Iran around the middle of the second millennium BC the word has been taken to mean bronze. Yet bronze objects assignable to the period of the Rigveda have not hitherto been found in any significant quantity at sites excavated in the Land of the Seven Rivers. The evidence for the use of bronze on any considerable scale being slight, there is no archaeological basis for the view that the early Aryan bronze- smiths were highly skilled or produced tools and weapons superior to those of the Harappans. Nor did the Rigvedic people Possess any knowledge of iron. 46 ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 47 The Aryans came to India as semi-nomadic people with a mixed pastoral and agricultural economy, in which cattle-rearing played a predominant role. Cattle formed their most valued possession and the chief form of their wealth; a wealthy person was called gomat. Prayers were made for the increase of cattle. The sacrificial priest was rewarded for his services with cattle, and the cow was the chief medium of exchange. Cattle were often the cause of inter-tribal wars. For, the word for battle came to be known as gavishti, literally, 'a search for cows'. Several other terms for battle like goshu, gavyat, gavyu and gaveshana were also derived from cattle. The social impact of cattle-raising can be seen from the fact that those who lived with their cows in the same cowshed came to belong to the same gotra, which word later came to indicate descent from a common ancestor and hence an exogamous clan unit. The daughter was known as duhitri, milcher of the cow. The cow is described in one or two places as not to be killed (aghnya), but this may imply its economic importance. It was not yet held sacred; nor had it become a politicized animal till then. Both oxen and cows were therefore slaughtered for food. Beef was a delicacy offered to the guest, described as goghna (cow-killer). In addition to cows, goats and sheep were domesticated both for milk and meat. Not surprisingly a good quantity of charred bones of cattle and other animals has been found at several archaeological sites. Bhagwanpura and Dadheri in Haryana where the post-Harappan cultural horizons coincide with the early Vedic period are cases in point. Since cattle seem to have been tended by common herdsmen, it has been suggested that they were collectively owned by members of the tribe. Cattle-breeding was the chief source of livelihood of the Rigvedic people. But they also practised agriculture. References to agricultural activities in the Rigveda are not many; the term krishi (to cultivate) occurs rarely in it. The well-known term hala for the plough is not found, but two other terms for plough, langala and sira, are mentioned. Ploughs were drawn by oxen; and ploughshares of wood were used for cultivation. The early Aryans possessed some knowledge of seasons, which promoted agriculture; the Rigveda mentions five seasons. Fire was used for burning forests and making land fit for cultivation. This was an easy option available because the people did not have knowledge of iron. Copper with which they were familiar was not of much value for agricultural operations. References to ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing and winnowing occur in the later portions of the Rigveda. The agrarian economy therefore may have become more stable towards the end of the early Vedic period. The Rigvedic people are known to have cultivated only one variety of grain called yava which meant barley. Unlike cattle, land was perhaps not commonly owned by members of a tribe. The Rigveda mentions several words for fields, and the practice of measuring land, but it nowhere refers to the sale, transfer, mortgage or gift of land by an individual. Obviously the concept of private property in land had not struck roots. The early Aryans, who were essentially pastoral, did not develop any political structure which could measure up to a state in either the ancient or the modern sense. The Land of the Seven Rivers, the region of their initial expansion in the subcontinent, was held by small tribal principalities; five of them are mentioned as the panchajanah in the Rigveda. Kingship was the same as tribal chiefship, the term ¦ rajan being used for the tribal chief. Primarily a military leader, the chief of the tribe fought for cows and not territory. He ruled over i his people (jana) and not over any specified area of land. He was therefore called their protector (gopa janasya or gopati janasya). The term gopati, basically indicating the protector of the herds of cattle, came to acquire the extended meaning of the protector of the people or tribe (jana). The word jana occurs twenty-seven times in the Rigveda, but janapada is not mentioned at all and the term rajya ' occurs only once. Yet the idea of territorial monarchy emerged I towards the close of the Rigvedic period when the chief/king (rajan) came to be looked upon as an upholder of the rashtra. Entitled to booty from successful cattle raids or battles, the king could also receive gifts in kind. But his position was not beyond question. Very likely he owed his office to the choice of the people, though kingship was perhaps confined to certain families. Available evidence does not indicate the continuance of royal succession in one family for more man three generations. This suggests that the principle of hereditary succession from father to son was not yet established. The king's authority was substantially limited by tribal assemblies like the sabha and the samiti, which discharged judicial and political functions. The sabha was a council of the elder members of the tribe; perhaps 48 ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 49 women also attended it.The samiti was a general tribal assembly and and have love affairs. She could take part in sacrifices with her less exclusive than the sabha. Another tribal assembly, the vidatha, also husband though some unmarried women like Visvavara and Apala may have restricted the power of the rajan, though its political role is offered the sacrifice all by themselves. Some women are also said to not possible to determine precisely. His dependence on the priest, have been authors of Rigvedic hymns. A childless widow could who was quite influential, perhaps further acted as a constraint on cohabit with her brother-in-law until the birth of a son; the practice the chief. „„c known as niyoga. The institution of marriage seems to have been was The Rigvedic people did not possess an elaborate administrative established. But we have also some evidence of incestuous relationships apparatus which would have required adequate surplus production, during the Rigvedic period. The dialogue between Yama andYami in The only surplus that was available was in the form of ball, mentioned the later portion of the Rigveda is indicative of brother- sister union, in the Rigveda several times in the sense of tribute to a prince ot Attention has also been drawn to other examples of incest in this offering to a god. Tribute paid to the chief was obligatory but there text—those between father and daughter, and mother and son. These is no evidence to show that it was regular. A functionary called senani instances may be treated as survivals of a matrilineal society. Clearly is referred to, but information about a regular standing army is lacking, then the mother-right was not completely submerged by the father- Since cases of theft, burglary, cheating and cattle lifting were known right in this period, but the overall patriarchal social ambience cannot in the Rigvedic period, the existence of police officials cannot be ignored. altogether be ruled out, though we do not know much about them. It is likely that the early Aryans had some consciousness of their About half a dozen state officials are mentioned in the Rigveda. They distinctive physical appearance. They were generally fair, the indigenous include the crowned queen known as the mahishi (the powerful one) people dark in complexion. The colour of the skin may have been an and the charioteer; the latter was quite important because of the important mark of their identity. This provided the context for the importance of the horse and chariots in the contemporary milieu, use of the term 'varna (colour). Scholars of racist persuasion have Certain rudiments of state had begun to appear but the politicalblown this out of proportion to explain the emergence of the varna system on the whole was a tribal chieftainship, devoid of a firm (caste) system. But the more important factor leading to the creation territorial basis, the halo of a latter-day monarchy, the regular standing °f social divisions was the conquest of the Dasas and Dasyus who army and an elaborate officialdom. were assigned the status of slaves and shudras. Tribal chiefs and priests Early Aryan social organization was essentially tribal, based on wll° cornered a larger share of booty, acquired greater power and kinship. Two terms jana and vish repeatedly occur in the Rigveda. The Prestige at the cost of their common kinsmen, thus giving rise to jana comprised several vish; the former stood for the whole tribe and social inequalities. The gift of slaves to priests was made frequently; the latter for the clan. It is held that the vish was divided into gramas, most of them being female slaves could, however, be employed only but evidence for this is inadequate. The basic unit of Aryan tribal r domestic purposes and not for agricultural production or other society was the patriarchal family called the kula. The eldest male Pr°ductive activities. But all members of even the priestly class were member of the family was known as the kulapa (protector of the not fortunate enough to receive lavish gifts. No wonder then that family). In the hymns desire is expressed for praja, including both brahmana Vamadeva laments his grim poverty: 'In the utmost boys and girls. But the people seem to have been keen on having need cooked I the entrails of a dog; among the gods I found no brave sons (suvirah) who could fight their wars. In spite of the Protection; I beheld my wife in degradation....' Another indigent patriarchal character of the family, the position of women was much ranmana humbly implores Agni 'to accept his sacrifice of worm- better in the Rigvedic period than in subsequent times. Girls normally ,aten firewood, as he has no cow, nor even an axe'. We also hear of a married after puberty, as can be inferred from the frequent mention r mana wno prays for the return of his wife forcibly abducted by of unmarried ones such as Ghosha who grew up in the home of her e klng-parents. In some cases a woman could freely mix with young men n c°urse of time the tribal society was divided into three groups, 50 ANCIENT INDIA THE ARYANS AND THE VEDIC LIFE 51 warriors (wjawya/kshatriya), priests (brahmana) and the comm0 people; the fourth division called the shudras appeared towards th end of the Rigvedic period, the term being derived from the nan of one of the subjugated tribes. The fourfold social division int brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra was given religious sanctio, A late passage in the earliest Veda tells us that the brahmana emanate; from the mouth of. the primeval man, the kshatriya from his arm* the vaishya from his thighs and the shudra from his feet. This ms, be a post facto rationalization of the occupations and of the positio; that the various groups came to occupy in the social hierarchy. Bij occupational differentiation did not always coincide with socij divisions in the Rigvedic period. We come across a family consistinj of a poet son, his father a physician and mother a grinder of corn. Unequal distribution of the spoils of war was certainly the basi reason for the emergence of the fourfold division of society. But th phenomenon was also linked with the process of assimilation of th aboriginal non-Aryan people by the various sections of Aryan societi members of the aboriginal tribes were considered to be outside the ale of the Aryan life and were reduced to the lowest position in society. Social distance between the Aryans and the 'dark skinned, full- lipped, snub-nosed' non-Aryans increased over time. Not surprisingly they may have felt the need to retain the purity of their blood, little realizing that much non-Aryan blood was already flowing in their veins, just as some non-Aryan gods had wormed their way into the Vedic pantheon. For example, Rudra, whose arrows brought disease, evolved from a Harappan cult; so did Tvashtri (the Vedic Vulcan). A synthesis of Aryan and non-Aryan speaking peoples was taking place at different levels. The Rigvedic gods were predominantly male as was natural in a patriarchal society. Their favour could be won through sacrifice. A number of domestic and public sacrifices are mentioned in the Rigveda. A passage from this text tells us that creation emanated from the first cosmic sacrifice. Prajapati (later known as Brahma) is thought of as a primeval man. He is said to have been sacrificed to himself by the In a passage of the Rigveda, Vasishtha, who replaced Vishvamitra i gods who were apparently his