The history of ancient India
Ancient India evolved in many stages, and in this book the author discusses the very early stages from 7000 B.C. to 1200 A.D that includes the earliest known human settlements in the Northwest frontier. An examination of their society, the development of early Indo-European language and a proto-Vedic culture that grew into modern Hinduism is a fascinating story of human evolution. The book discusses social, political, and religious activities during various periods in India in separate chapters for a more focused discussion. This book also documents very recent discoveries about the origin of ancient Sanskrit, the Vedic Aryans and the beginnings of the earliest writings of the sacred scriptures of Rigveda in the cradles of Indus Valley Civilization. It is fascinating to read some of the proudest moments in the history due to its success in the development of religious, spiritual and metaphysical ideas. There was also a tremendous contribution in the area of business and economics, international trade, arts, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, and literature. In ancient world, most religions, like Vedic Brahmanism were polytheistic with the exception of Buddhism and Jainism.
A brief summary of this book is as follows: The first section is devoted to the discussion of the history of Vedic Aryans and evolution of ancient Sanskrit and revelation of Rigveda to sages and rishis. In recent years, multidisciplinary studies in archeology, anthropology, genetics, classical philology and linguistics have shed much light into the origins of Indo-Europeans and the parent Indo-European language from two distinct groups of people; the hunter-gatherers, and the farmers/pastoralists. In the beginning, the ancient populations in Europe and Asia were divided into individual archaeological cultures with distinctive types of pottery and cultural practices associated with burials and settlements. With the advent of genetics and genome sequencing, the different groups could be reconciled with genome data that explains the origin and migrations of ancient people in Eurasia. This in turn also explain the source of the parent Indo-European language that resulted in diverse languages in Europe and Asia that includes English, Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, Russian, Hindi, Persian, etc. The similarities among these languages are based on shared features of vocabulary and grammar. Genome sequencing of ancient human skeletons from Europe and Asia have revealed population genealogy of original hunter-gatherers, and the first farmers who appeared around 8,000 years ago. The farmers increased their dominance over hunter-gatherers until the early Bronze Age at about 3,500 B.C. Farmers throughout much of Europe had more hunter-gatherer ancestry than their predecessors. But the Russian/Ukrainian grasslands north of the Black Sea, the Yamnaya steppe herders, descended not only from the preceding eastern European hunter-gatherers, but also from a population of Near Eastern ancestry. Western and Eastern Europe came into contact at about 4,500 B.C. The first Indo-European languages started to spread around this time. Yamnaya were the first to introduce Indo-European language to Europe and Asia, the size of the genetic input suggests that it brought at least major parts. This is called “Steppe hypothesis", which proposes that early Indo-European speakers were farmers on the grasslands north of the Black and Caspian Seas. The Indo-European languages spoken in Iran and India had probably already diverged from the Yamnaya herder society, perhaps few centuries earlier, before they blazed a trail into Europe from the north of Black and Caspian Seas.
Ancient people were ritualistic and performed animal sacrifices to ward off evil and to please various gods. Pre Jewish Canaanite religion was very much connected to Vedic traditions. They were polytheistic, and most of them were nature gods with cyclical view of time. Similar beliefs also existed in the Egyptian religion, the Roman religion, Greek and Babylonian religions. Many of these gods had very similar names and their functions were similar to those of Rig Vedic gods. Zoroastrianism born in Persia had many cultural practices that were in common with Vedic traditions. Strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Zoroastrianism texts of the Avesta and f the Vedas reflect the common beliefs of Proto-Indo-Iranian cultures before they were separated and Vedic Aryans moved east to India where Rig-Veda was known to have been revealed to sages and rishis by gods. Common religious practices among ancient religions are supported by archeological digs. A 6,000-year-old temple with sacrificial altars and humanlike figurines were discovered in a prehistoric settlement in Ukraine near modern-day Nebelivka. This settlement is almost twice the size of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with more than 1,200 buildings and 50 streets. The migration of the pastoralists from these lands spread the proto-Indo European language. They also carried skills of farming and herding and the cultural practices such as fire rituals to connect with nature gods to distant lands.
There is a general consensus among archeologists that the mature Harappan period (known as Indus Valley Civilization) lasted from about 2600 B.C. to 1900 B.C. The period 4500 to 3500 B.C is an age of transition; and 3500 to 2600 B.C is regarded as early Harappan period. The Vedic – Hindu culture began around 2000 B.C and spanned for about 1500 years unhindered, but then Buddhist and Jain teachings came to dominate the Indian society. Buddhism offered a serious challenge to the Vedic-Brahmanic culture until Adi Shankara appeared (788 - 820 A.D.) to reform and revive Hinduism from possible extinction. In spite of religious and cultural tensions between various indigenous belief systems that sprang on Indian soil, the classical civilization grew unimpeded. Much of this was as a result of the partnership of Vedic-Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, the dissenters and atheists. In fact there were plenty of atheists in Vedic India. Dissent and atheism helped intellectual progress in a purely academic fashion that helped to strengthen various schools of Indian philosophy.
A decline around 1900 B.C. in the dynamics of Harappan economic system ended the civilization, and after 1700 B.C little remained of this culture. Until recently it was believed that invading Aryans destroyed the Indus culture but scholars now consider a combination of natural and socioeconomic factors led to the decline of Indus cities. This conclusion is based on geological and archeological studies. Rivers shifting the course and severe draught may have resulted in total collapse of the agriculture and affected the livelihood that depended on it.
The earliest hymns of Rig-Veda were written in 1700 B.C and it was orally transmitted with extreme fidelity. The caste system helped in this practice since the upper caste Brahmins passed on it on to their children. It was written down after 500 B.C. The sixth century B.C was a period that was watershed in the history of speculative ideas. By then the Vedic society had become highly stratified and gross inequality pervading its structure. There was a sense of injustice and dissent among ordinary populace. The emergence of Buddhism and Jainism is what was necessary to combat the growing power and authority of the priestly population. Both these religions rooted in renunciation of the worldly pleasures and wealth, was trying to bring justice and social equality among sudras and vaisya population of Vedic caste hierarchy.
Three major dynasties guided the capital city of Magadha between the middle of the sixth century B.C when the empire of Mauryas was proclaimed from Pataliputra. Bimbisara and Ajatasatru were the first two kings. The most notable Maurya was Emperor Asoka who reigned from Afghanistan to parts of South India and sent ambassadors and Buddhist missionaries to China, Japan and the Middle East. This is one of the proudest moments in the history of ancient India.
With the fall of Mauryan Empire was accompanied by the loss of pan-Indian authority exercised from Pataliputra to Magadha. A number of competing power centers in different regions of India came into existence. The political diffusion in the post Mauryan period and the emergence of monarchies with foreign roots is interesting since historians have a huge scale of available evidence. From Royal inscriptions, the shastras, the secular literature, Buddhist religious and secular texts and the Tamil anthologies, foreign literary sources from China, Syria, Greece, Persia and Egypt gives credence to the political and commercial setting of this period. From about 200 B.C. the transition from proto-historical to historical period is clearly evident. Kushans maintained a powerful dominion over North India until at least up to 250 A.D. and their trans-Asian empire, from Aral Sea to Kashi, Eastern Iran, Afghanistan and North Western part of India, was great expanse of land and the great conduits for India’s international trade.
The beginnings of India’s international trade began as early as 2500 B.C when Harappan civilization traded with Romans, Greece, Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. This trade relationship continued through the Mauryan period and grew rapidly in its sophistication with sound commercial infrastructure. The book shows diagrammatic sketches of the international trade that went as far as Rome to the West and as far as Indonesia to the East, and China to the north. These are some of the proudest moments in Indian business and economics. Indian merchants and Buddhist missionaries also forged a powerful alliance of interests. Buddhism became a strong influence in China and Japan. The Silk Road traded silk between China and Rome though India.
During the post-Mauryan period, in several kingdoms, Vedic Brahmanism was brought back but with some reforms in its teachings. This led to the beginning of two forms of modern Hinduism in the form of Vaishnavism and Saivism. They centered around three concepts; the supreme deity is either Vishnu or Siva and the salvation is through Lord Vishnu and Siva respectively. This is said to be achieved by the intense devotion (bhakti) of the godhead. The two traditions did not break away from Vedic Brahmanism but rejected some practices such as animal sacrifices and expressed more tolerance to lower castes.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient history, Indus Valley Civilization, the beginnings of Indo-European language and evolution of modern Hinduism. It is fascinating to read about the vast period the author focuses in his discussion with significant details. You will come across some of the proudest moments in the history of India.
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