Our Oriental Heritage
Page 52
From the day when Xerxes turned back defeated from Salamis, it became evident that Greece would one day challenge the empire. Persia controlled one end of the great trade route that bound western Asia with the Mediterranean, Greece controlled the other; and the ancient acquisitiveness and ambition of men made such a situation provocative of war. As soon as Greece found a master who could give her unity, she would attack.
Alexander crossed the Hellespont without opposition, having what seemed to Asia a negligible force of 30,000 footmen and 5,000 cavalry.* A Persian army of 40,000 troops tried to stop him at the Granicus; the Greeks lost 115 men, the Persians 20,000.144 Alexander marched south and east, taking cities and receiving surrenders for a year. Meanwhile Darius III gathered a horde of 600,000 soldiers and adventurers; five days were required to march them over a bridge of boats across the Euphrates; six hundred mules and three hundred camels were needed to carry the royal purse.145 When the two armies met at Issus Alexander had no more than 30,000 followers; but Darius, with all the stupidity that destiny could require, had chosen a field in which only a small part of his multitude could fight at one time. When the slaughter was over the Macedonians had lost some 450, the Persians 110,000 men, most of these being slain in wild retreat; Alexander, in reckless pursuit, crossed a stream on a bridge of Persian corpses.146 Darius fled ignominiously, abandoning his mother, a wife, two daughters, his chariot, and his luxuriously appointed tent. Alexander treated the Persian ladies with a chivalry that surprised the Greek historians, contenting himself with marrying one of the daughters. If we may believe Quintus Curtius, the mother of Darius became so fond of Alexander that after his death she put an end to her own life by voluntary starvation.147
The young conqueror turned aside now with what seemed foolhardy leisureliness to establish his control over all of western Asia; he did not wish to advance farther without organizing his conquests and building a secure line of communications. The citizens of Babylon, like those of Jerusalem, came out en masse to welcome him, offering him their city and their gold; he accepted these graciously, and pleased them by restoring the temples which the unwise Xerxes had destroyed. Darius sent him a proposal of peace, saying that he would give Alexander ten thousand talents* for the safe return of his mother, his wife and his children, would offer him his daughter in marriage, and would acknowledge his sovereignty over all Asia west of the Euphrates, if only Alexander would end the war and become his friend. Parmenio, second in command among the Greeks, said that if he were Alexander he would be glad to accept such happy terms, and avoid with honor the hazard of some disastrous defeat. Alexander remarked that he would do likewise—if he were Parmenio. Being Alexander, he answered Darius that his offer meant nothing, since he, Alexander, already possessed such parts of Asia as Darius proposed to cede to him, and could marry the daughter of the emperor when he pleased. Darius, despairing of peace with so reckless a logician, turned unwillingly to the task of collecting another and larger force.
Meanwhile Alexander had taken Tyre, and annexed Egypt; now he marched back across the great empire, straight to its distant capitals. In twenty days from Babylon his army reached Susa, and took it without resistance; thence it advanced so quickly to Persepolis that the guards of the royal treasury had no time to secrete its funds. There Alexander committed one of the most unworthy acts of his incredible career: against the counsel of Parmenio, and (we are told) to please the courtesan Thaïs,† he burned the palaces of Persepolis to the ground, and permitted his troops to loot the city. Then, having raised the spirits of his army with booty and gifts, he turned north to meet Darius for the last time.
Darius had gathered, chiefly from his eastern provinces, a new army of a million men148—Persians, Medes, Babylonians, Syrians, Armenians, Cappadocians, Bactrians, Sogdians, Arachosians, Sacæ and Hindus—and had equipped them no longer with bows and arrows, but with javelins, spears, shields, horses, elephants, and scythe-wielding chariots intended to mow down the enemy like wheat; with this vast force old Asia would make one more effort to preserve itself from adolescent Europe. Alexander, with 7,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, met the motley mob at Gaugamela,* and by superior weapons, generalship and courage destroyed it in a day. Darius again chose the better part of valor, but his generals, disgusted with this second flight, murdered him in his tent. Alexander put to death such of the assassins as he could find, sent the body of Darius in state to Persepolis, and ordered it to be buried in the manner of the Achæmenid kings. The Persian people flocked readily to the standard of the conquerer, charmed by his generosity and his youth. Alexander organized Persia into a province of the Macedonian Empire, left a strong garrison to guard it, and marched on to India.
BOOK TWO
INDIA AND HER NEIGHBORS
“The highest truth is this: God is present in all beings. They are His multiple forms. There is no other God to seek. . . . It is a man-making religion that we want. . . . Give up these weakening mysticisms, and be strong. . . . For the next fifty years. . . . let all other gods disappear from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race, everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, everywhere His ears; He covers everything. . . . The first of all worships is the worship of those all around us. . . . He alone serves God who serves all other beings.”
—Vivekananda.1
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF INDIAN HISTORY*
B.C.
4000:
Neolithic Culture in Mysore
2900:
Culture of Mohenjo-daro
1600:
Aryan invasion of India
1000-500:
Formation of the Vedas
800-500:
The Upanishads
599-527:
Mahavira, founder of Jainism
563-483:
Buddha
500:
Sushruta, physician
500:
Kapila and the Sankhya Philosophy
500:
The earliest Puranas
329:
Greek invasion of India
325:
Alexander leaves India
322-185:
The Maury a Dynasty
322-298:
Chandragupta Maurya
302-298:
Megasthenes at Pataliputra
273-232:
Ashoka
A.D. 120:
Kanishka, Kushan King
120:
Charaka, physician
320-530:
The Gupta Dynasty
320-330:
Chandragupta I
330-380:
Samudragupta
380-413:
Vikramaditya
399-414:
Fa-Hien in India
100-700:
Temples and frescoes of Ajanta
400:
Kalidasa, poet and dramatist
455-500:
Hun invasion of India
499:
Aryabhata, mathematician
505-587:
Varahamihira, astronomer
598-660:
Brahmagupta, astronomer
606-648:
King Harsha-Vardhana
608-642:
Pulakeshin II, Chalukyan King
629-645:
Yuan Chwang in India
629-50:
Srong-tsan Gampo, King of Tibet
630-800:
Golden Age of Tibet
639:
Srong-tsan Gampo founds Lhasa
712:
Arab conquest of Sind
750:
Rise of the Pallava Kingdom
750-780:
Building of Borobudur, Java
760:
The Kailasha Temple
788-820:
Shankara, Vedanta philosopher
800-1300:
Golden Age of Cambodia
800-1400:
Golden Age of of Rajputana
900:
Rise of the Chola King
dom
973-1048:
Alberuni, Arab scholar
993:
Foundation of Delhi
997-1030:
Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni
A.D.
1008:
Mahmud invades India
1076-1126:
Vikramaditya Chalukya
1114:
Bhaskara, mathematician
1150:
Building of Angkor Wat
1186:
Turkish invasion of India
1206-1526:
The Sultanate of Delhi
1206-1210:
Sultan Kutbu-d Din Aibak
1288-1293:
Marco Polo in India
1296-1315:
Sultan Alau-d-din
1303:
Alau-d-din takes Chitor
1325-1351:
Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlak
1336:
Foundation of Vijayanagar
1336-1405:
Timur (Tamerlane)
1351-1388:
Sultan Firoz Shah
1398:
Timur invades India
1440-1518:
Kabir, poet
1469-1538:
Baba Nanak, founder of the Sikhs
1483-1530:
Babur founds the Mogul Dynasty
1483-1573:
Sur Das, poet
1498:
Vasco da Gama reaches India
1509-1529:
Krishna deva Raya rules Vijayanagar
1510:
Portugese occupy Goa
1530-1542:
Humayun
1532-1624:
Tulsi Das, poet
1542-1545:
Sher Shah
1555-1556:
Restoration and death of Humayun
1560-1605:
Akbar
1565:
Fall of Vijayanagar at Talikota
1600:
Foundation of East India Co.
1605-1627:
Jehangir
1628-1658:
Shah Jehan
1631:
Death of Mumtaz Mahal
1632-1653:
Building of the Taj Mahal
1658-1707:
Aurangzeb
1674:
The French found Pondicherry
1674-1680:
Raja Shivaji
1690:
The English found Calcutta
1756-1763:
French-English War in India
1757:
Battle of Plassey
1765-1767:
Robert Clive, Gov. of Bengal
1772-1774:
Warren Hastings, Gov. of Bengal
1788-1795:
Trial of Warren Hastings
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF INDIAN HISTORY
A.D.
1786-1793:
Lord Cornwallis, Gov. of Bengal
1798-1805:
Marquess Wellesley, Gov. of Bengal
1828-1835:
Lord William Cavendish-Bentinck, Governor-General of India
1828:
Ram Mohun Roy founds the Brahma-Somaj
1829:
Abolition of suttee
1836-1886:
Ramakrishna
1857:
The Sepoy Mutiny
1858:
India taken over by the British Crown
1861:
Birth of Rabindranath Tagore
A.D.
1863-1902:
Vivekananda (Narendranath Dutt)
1869:
Birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
1875:
Dayananda founds the Arya-Somaj.
1880-1884:
Marquess of Ripon, Viceroy
1885:
Foundation of India National Congress
1889-1905:
Baron Curzon, Viceroy
1916-1921:
Baron Chelmsford, Viceroy
1919:
Amritsar
1921-1926:
Earl of Reading, Viceroy
1926-1931:
Lord Irwin, Viceroy
1931-:
Lord Willingdon, Viceroy
CHAPTER XIV
The Foundations of India
I. SCENE OF THE DRAMA
The rediscovery of India—A glance at the map—Climatic influences
NOTHING should more deeply shame the modern student than the recency and inadequacy of his acquaintance with India. Here is a vast peninsula of nearly two million square miles; two-thirds as large as the United States, and twenty times the size of its master, Great Britain; 320,000,000 souls, more than in all North and South America combined, or one-fifth of the population of the earth; an impressive continuity of development and civilization from Mohenjo-daro, 2900 B.C. or earlier, to Gandhi, Raman and Tagore; faiths compassing every stage from barbarous idolatry to the most subtle and spiritual pantheism; philosophers playing a thousand variations on one monistic theme from the Upanishads eight centuries before Christ to Shankara eight centuries after him; scientists developing astronomy three thousand years ago, and winning Nobel prizes in our own time; a democratic constitution of untraceable antiquity in the villages, and wise and beneficent rulers like Ashoka and Akbar in the capitals; minstrels singing great epics almost as old as Homer, and poets holding world audiences today; artists raising gigantic temples for Hindu gods from Tibet to Ceylon and from Cambodia to Java, or carving perfect palaces by the score for Mogul kings and queens—this is the India that patient scholarship is now opening up, like a new intellectual continent, to that Western mind which only yesterday thought civilization an exclusively European thing.*
The scene of the history is a great triangle narrowing down from the everlasting snows of the Himalayas to the eternal heat of Ceylon. In a corner at the left lies Persia, close akin to Vedic India in people, language and gods. Following the northern frontier eastward we strike Afghanistan; here is Kandahar, the ancient Gandhara, where Greek and Hindu* sculpture fused for a while, and then parted never to meet again; and north of it is Kabul, from which the Moslems and the Moguls made those bloody raids that gave them India for a thousand years. Within the Indian frontier, a short day’s ride from Kabul, is Peshawar, where the old northern habit of invading the south still persists. Note how near to India Russia comes at the Pamirs and the passes of the Hindu Kush; hereby will hang much politics. Directly at the northern tip of India is the province of Kashmir, whose very name recalls the ancient glory of India’s textile crafts. South of it is the Punjab—i.e., “Land of the Five Rivers”—with the great city of Lahore, and Shimla, summer capital at the foot of the Himalayas (“Home of the Snow”). Through the western Punjab runs the mighty river Indus, a thousand miles in length; its name came from the native word for river, sindhu, which the Persians (changing it to Hindu) applied to all northern India in their word Hindustan—i.e., “Land of the Rivers.” Out of this Persian term Hindu the invading Greeks made for us the word India.
From the Punjab the Jumna and the Ganges flow leisurely to the southeast; the Jumna waters the new capital at Delhi, and mirrors the Taj Mahal at Agra; the Ganges broadens down to the Holy City, Benares, washes ten million devotees daily, and fertilizes with its dozen mouths the province of Bengal and the old British capital at Calcutta. Still farther east is Burma, with the golden pagodas of Rangoon and the sunlit road to Mandalay. From Mandalay back across India to the western airport at Karachi is almost as long a flight as from New York to Los Angeles. South of the Indus, on such a flight, one would pass over Rajputana, land of the heroic Rajputs, with its famed cities of Gwalior and Chitor, Jaipur, Ajmer and Udaipur. South and west is the “Presidency” or province of Bombay, with teeming cities at Surat, Ahmedabad, Bombay and Poona. East and south lie the progressive native-ruled states of Hyderabad and Mysore, with picturesque capitals of the same names. On the west coast is Goa, and on the eastern coast is Pondicherry, where the con
quering British have left to the Portuguese and the French respectively a few square miles of territorial consolation. Along the Bay of Bengal the Madras Presidency runs, with the well-governed city of Madras as its center, and the sublime and gloomy temples of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Rameshvaram adorning its southern boundaries. And then “Adam’s Bridge”—a reef of sunken islands—beckons us across the strait to Ceylon, where civilization flourished sixteen hundred years ago. All these are a little part of India.