User:Arvindn/notes
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[edit] Indian History
[edit] Indus valley civilization
- The Indus people had significant maritime activities.
- Objects resembling scales and weights have been found (==> trade)
- Buildings were made of sun-dried bricks
- No direct evidence of use of currency.
- They had a cyclic concept of time. Indeed, Hinduism has the concept of the 4 yugas: Satya, Trata, Dvapara and Kali. After Kali is the pralaya (destruction) which leads back to Satya.
- Fertility rites were common.
- They believed in a connection between the productivity of land and humans. Accordingly one of their rites was to copulate on the field.
- We have found many phallic symbols, thought to represent proto-Shiva.
- Bronze statue of dancing girl in extrmenely provocative posture. (Remark: even today female statues/idols have enlarged mammaries and hips)
- They worshipped a mother-Goddess.
- Abandoned skeletons are found (?).
- Indus remains suggest 4 diffent ethnic backgrounds:
- Caucasian
- Proto-meditteranean
- Mongoloid
- Negroid
- Possible causes for decline
- Floods
- Deforestation
- Tectonic movement
- Malaria
- The earliest scripts that are known are the following
- Harappan
- Hitite
- Sumerian
- Egyptian
- Chinese
- Cretan
- Ilamite
- The Harappan script alone has not been deciphered. It can be classified as pictography/logography/ideography
- Evolution of syllablic scripts lead to decrease in the number of characters.
- The H. script is found in seals, pot shards and bronzes.
- The Egyptian script was deciphered using bilingual stones. The other language in the stones was proto-Greek.
- The stratum in which the artifact is found gives clues about the date.
- Animals known to the Indus people: Bull, elephant, rhino, tiger, buffalo.
- Animals not known: horse, lion, camel.
- Since the script has not been deciphered, in practice it is prehistory even though we call it history.
- 4000 seals of the Indus civ have been found.
- 400-450 characters of the script have been identified.
- The average inscription has 5 chars. The longest has 26.
- The margins are to the right. We find cramped characters on the left.
- 83% of the time they wrote R to L. 7-8% of the time R to L followed by L to R.
- Boustrophedon mode of writing
- Brevity may indicate that inscriptions may refer to names of owners. Thus it might not teach us much about the civ even if the script is deciphered.
[edit] Vedic Cilvilization
(Note: lots of Sanskrit words ahead. In italics.)
[edit] Early Vedic
- Rig Vedic society was tribal in nature (Indus: Urban).
- Main occupation was cattle rearing
- Rajan: ruler
- Visvamitra was a prohita, a rajaguru
- Panchajana - the confederacy
- The Dasa or Dasyus
- Were thought to be pre-vedic/pre-aryan people by earlier historians
- They were dark complexioned, did not worship Vedic deities, spoke a non-sanskritic language, had woolly hair etc.
- Some scholars contend the gap was cultural rather than racial and say that Dasyus were earlier Aryans
- Vyasa had a fisherman background, and Agastya is descibed as being short.
- Casteism as we know it wsa not found in the early Vedic times.
- Gavishti - cattle rites.
- Prohit: advisor and religious head. Not a brahmin in the modern sense
- Senani: led the tribe in war.
- Entire tribe had a right to bear arms
- King often got a ceremonial gift - bali from the people
- The polity of the Rg Veda was none too complex
- Food. The Early Aryans ate meat.
- Cow is described as aghnya (that which cannot be killed)
- However, there is reference to goghnya (one whose job is to kill cows)
- Most likely explanation of the paradox: cows were a valuable resource, and were to be used sparingly.
- Irrefutable evidence in later vedic text of author, who was one the major saints of the Upanishads, enjoying tender calf.
- Vegetarianism became an important part of Brahminical tradition after Buddha.
- Shastras mention how to apportion meat of sacrifieced horse.
- No reference in Rg Veda of prayers for better crops, only better Pasu (cattle).
- Sidenote: D. N. Jha wrote a book about this subject and the VHP managed to prevent its publication by terrorizing the publisher.
- Wheat was not known. Godhma is referred to only in later Vedic texts.
- Gambling was a common pastime
- In the Rg veda there is the lament of a gambler
- Learning was by rote
- Students learning verses are compared in the literature of the period to croaking frogs.
- Poverty and plenty were both common
- Religion
- Worship of nature.
- Fear of the unknown and unfamiliar.
- The terrifying forces of nature were deified
- Dharma was supposed to be eternal and its practice ensured standing
- Great emphasis on social and moral conservativeness
- Fear of disharmony and chaos
- Deities: Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Surya, Mitra, Agni, Soma.
- Deities were not viewed as all-powerful
- Relationship between devotee and deity was one of transaction
- At any given point, one particular deity was superior to all others
- Each had a specific role
- rth - the cosmic order
- Mode of worship: sacrifices, chanting of verses
- They prayed for longeivity of life, plentiful procreation and cattle.
- No reference to moksha in the Rg.
- Visvamitra = friend of the Vis. hence he was probably not of Vedic origin.
[edit] Later Vedic
- Agriculture emerged as an important economic activity.
- More free time
- Artisans and craftsmen were more numerous
- Varna was more rigid, but not yet watertight
- Trade increased; was by and large barter
- No unanimous view on the existense of money
- The people had moved to a more congenial area, favorable climatic conditions, more rainfall and alluvial soil
- Small hamlets were established along the Gangetic valley
- Aryavarta the land acquired a sacred connotation
- All the sacred sites are found along the Gangetic valley
- Early ruler was called the Gopa (protector of cows), now becomes chakravrtin - possessor (protector ?) of land
- Importance of cattle rearing seems to have waned
- Janas fought among themselves and claimed the land
- Jana --> Janapathi
- Rashtra (state) occurs extensively in later literature
- Rituals, organization and ceremony become important
- Elaborate crowning/coronation rituals -- major social occasion
- The king symbolically tilled the land
- Various officers, in addition to the prohit and senani emerged
- Wars occur in order to acquire more land. (e.g Kurukshetra)
- Ruler who brings more land under his rule called himself Ekarat, Samrat, Chakravartin etc.
- Yagnyas: Vajapeya, Rajasuya, Asvamedha
- Much forest land had to be cleared
- however, the Brahmin received gifts in Go, not Bhu
- Land surveys, revenue, etc. are common
- Kshartiyas and Brahmanas did not contribute to the economy and had to be supported by the other classes
- Many rituals emerged to strengthen the alliance between these two groups
- Internal divisions became marked (?)
- Jaya - 8800 verses; Bharata - 24000 verses, Mahabharata - > 10^5 verses
- Social division exists but caste system had not fully emerged
- To strengthen their position, the Brahmanas proliferated a large number of sacrifices and increased their importance
- Improper performance of sacrifices/chanting of verses was supposed to bring ruin
- Vak, the goddess of learning became a deity in order to ensure the proper enunciation of verses
- Kshatriyas amassed wealth
- Yajamana - the one who commissioned the sacrifice (sponsor)
- Specialization of an extreme order developed among the Brahmanas
- Dana (gift) gave way to Dakshina (fee)
- Matsya Nyaya - smaller states being absorbed by bigger ones. (Matsya = fish; Nyaya = approx. rule; think smaller fish being eaten by bigger ones).
- Janapadas: 16 became Mahajanapadas
- The lot of the lower Varnas declined and became miserable (the literature is clear on this point)
- Dha (root of dharma) : firm, strong, unshakeable
- Less equitable distribution of wealth
- Rule of primogeniture was not well established
- Hereditary monarchy was emerging
- Rg mentions Gana, sabha, samiti, vidhata. Now becomes merely royal court. (==> Participation of people decreased)
- Women were given a distinctly lower status
- No child marriage
- Brahmacharya was exhorted but spinsters were frowned upon
- Concept of property and inheritance increases, therefore women's status decreases
- Priestly class put forth the concept that proper carrying out of yagnyas led to victory.
- Competition everywhere; survival of the fittest.
- Many were upset about the economic and social differences instead of the egalitarian values of the tribal society.
- Some wanted to opt out of the race
- These people meditated on the philosophical aspects of life; their musings are recorded in the Aranyakas of the Upanishads
- This was a natural response to transition and uncertainty.
- They looked for certitude of position
- Matsya nyaya evoked condemnation from these people. They scorned wealth
- The above information is based on socio-psychological analysis based on later vedic literature by contemporary scholars
- This was a protest movement. If it became widespread, economy and society would come to a grinding halt.
- Therefore the 4 ashramas: Brahmacharya, Grihasta, Vanaprasta and Sanyasa.
- Thus sanyasa is legitimized but placed at the fag end so that it does not affect the average citizen
- Karma and punarjanma - two important concepts.
- Karma = balance sheet of good and bad, punarjanma = afterlife/rebirth.
- Sidenote: compare the psychological response of emigrant Indians to unfamiliar territory. Some become ultraconservative, others become highly liberal. The former are the group that funds the Hindu fundamentalists/terrorists like VHP. The latter try hard to become assimilated into the new society.
- Karma makes you accept your failure and makes you feel responsible for it instead of attributing it to external forces
- Vedas were considered axiomatic. But starting from there they reasoned logically in the Upanishads.
- A true believer in Karma would not be a fatalist
- A call for action without getting too caught up in the outcome
- Moksha is freedom from good and bad, which are though to be subjective
- Reference: Romila Thapar - "Asceticism as a protest movement in Ancient India" in "Essays on early Indian history".
