The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  Ghatikas, colleges and centres providing brahmanical learning, were generally attached to the temples. Entry to these colleges was at first open to any ‘twice-born’ caste. Although occasionally endowed by merchants, they were viewed as brahman institutions and concerned with advanced study. Extensive royal patronage allowed the potential for political activity, in that they were centres either of loyalty to the monarchy or – when supported by disaffected members of the royal family – of political opposition. Apart from the monasteries and colleges at Kanchipuram, which acquired fame almost equalling Nalanda, there were a number of other Sanskrit colleges. In about the eighth century, the matha, an institution supported by Brahmanism and Puranic Hinduism, emerged as a parallel institution to the Buddhist and Jaina monasteries. This was a combination of a rest-house, a feeding-centre, and an educational centre, which indirectly brought publicity to the particular sect with which it was associated. The mathas naturally served a more useful purpose in places where pilgrims gathered and where religious discussions could be more effective.

  Sanskrit was now the recognized medium in these institutions and spread through its use in the agrahara, ghatikas and mathas. It was also the official language at the court, which encouraged its use in literary circles. Two outstanding works from this period were Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya, based on a theme from the Mahabharata which figures the hero Arjuna’s contestation with Shiva, and Dandin’s Dashakumaracharita (The Tale of the Ten Princes). Dandin’s stories were located in various parts of the subcontinent and included a motley collection of characters from virtually every walk of life, while being narrated with wit and a conspicuous lack of sanctimoniousness. But conscious literary labouring was also fashionable, presumably as a virtuoso demonstration of proficiency in the language. Sometimes a poem was written with such skill that it could be read both forwards and in reverse, each reading narrating two different stories, such as the narrative of the Ramayana in one reading and of the Mahabharata in the other. Those who indulged in and acclaimed this degree of literary artifice ignored the languages of new literature – Tamil in the south, with Kannada, and later, Telugu, in the Deccan.

  References were made to the existence of literature in Kannada at this time, but not too much has survived. A seventh-century inscription of a Chalukya king at Badami mentions Kannada as the local Prakrit or natural language, and Sanskrit as the language of culture, which neatly summarizes the relationship between the two languages. This relationship was later labelled that of the deshi or local, popular literature, and the marga, or mainstream literature in Sanskrit. An awareness of the social context of languages and literatures is implicit in this distinction. A century later, a Chalukya king had an inscription engraved in Kannada at Kanchipuram. The ninth-century Kavirajamarga is important to Kannada poetics.

  Tamil could by now claim poetry of both the lyric and epic variety. Didactic poems of an earlier time frequently deriving from Jaina inspiration were known and recited, such as those of the Kural and the Naladiyar. The two Tamil epic poems, Shilappadigaram and Manimegalai, which laid the foundation for a mature and independent poetic style in Tamil, are often dated to the mid-first millennium AD. The author of the first, Ilango Adigal, a member of the royal family, was evidently partial to the Shramanas since the poem is suffused with an ethos highlighting ahimsa (non-violence) and karma (human action), although it also shows a certain religious eclecticism. The sequel written by Cattan, who came from a merchant family, continues the story and the mood. These poems are departures from earlier stories and poems of sword-wielding heroes since the central figure of the first is the heroine Kannaki, whose heroic violence and reward take the unusual form of a curse on the city of Madurai, and her eventual ascension as the goddess Pattini. Although these poems are classified as epics, the themes are different from epic stereotypes. The didactic element is also evident in a series of Jaina Ramayanas, composed in diverse places, which are alternative texts to those inspired by a brahmanical ethos.

  Both the long Tamil poems contain descriptions rich in imagery of the countryside as well as of the town of Kaveripattinam, and are particularly evocative of the activities of daily life. A passage from the Shilappadigaram reads:

  In the thicket

  Of fresh lotuses rising from the ponds

  Caressed by splendid paddy fields

  And sugarcane are heard, as on a battlefield

  Where two kings fight for victory,

  Various kinds of clamorous sounds

  Made by waterfowls, screaming cranes,

  Red-footed swans, green-footed herons,

  Wild fowls, cormorants, snipes,

  The ural water-birds, large herons

  And other birds. Buffaloes enter and immerse

  Themselves in the soft, unploughed mire.

  With the hair on their bodies unwashed, eyes

  Red, they come and rub

  Their itching backs against the unspoilt, straw bins,

  Thus loosening the twisted strands that hold them.

  The bins come apart spilling the rich grain

  Stored inside with sheaves of excellent paddy

  That resembles chowries.

  One heard the noise of the loud talk of labourers

  With strong arms and farmers standing

  In knots. One heard the sound

  Of songs in new styles by low born women

  Who turned on by strong wine worked in the fields.

  Eyes wide like red minnows,

  They bandied indecent words and looked

  Singularly charming in their clothes splashed

  With mud that also glazed their breasts and shoulders

  Clasped by armlets. From their hair they picked

  The fragrant flowers and thrust seedlings instead.

  One heard the ploughmen’s song of praise

  As they stood by their ploughs and worshipped

  With folded hands. They appeared to break open

  The earth radiant with wreaths bound

  With shining ears of rice, plaited

  With blue lotuses and the thick, vine-like hariali grass

  Ilango Adigal, Shilappadigaram, ti. R. Parthasarathy, The The Lay of an Anklet, pp. 98-9

  The description of the city comes from Manimegalai where Puhar is compared to a woman:

  The moats filled with clear water, embellished with innumerable flowers, sounding with the song of a thousand kinds of bird, form a ring round her ankle. The surrounding walls, commanded by towers, are her diamond studded girdle. The gates surmounted by staffs with flags flying, are her shoulders laden with many necklaces. The temple of the tree of abundance (kalpataru) and the temple of the thunderbolt (vajra) standing face to face, are her two superb and provocative breasts. The vast palace, thousands of years old, of matchless splendour, commanding the city, the residence of the Chola king who wears a necklace of orchid-tree leaves, is her face. The full moon rising in the east and the sun setting in the west are her earrings of silver and gold.

  Cattan, Manimekhalai, u. A. Danielou, p. 22

  Classicism in Tamil includes many expressions invoking the emotion of love, the seminal form of which can be found in earlier Shangam poetry. The development of Tamil was furthered by a religious movement popularized by groups of poets, hymnologists and preachers, who in modern studies are often called the ‘saints’ of the Tamil devotional sects. Tamil was widely used in these compositions, accelerating its evolution compared to other southern languages. (The term ‘saint’ has been used extensively for those who were teachers and poets of bhakti, where devotion was the primary religious expression. The word should not be understood in the sense of a Christian saint, but rather as a charismatic person girted to teach the new doctrines and to compose poems, and around whom large groups of followers gathered.)

  Philosophical and Religious Changes

  The interaction of northern culture with that of the south, with the circuits of traders and regular routes of armies as well as brahman settle
rs, resulted in the assimilation of some of the patterns, ideas and institutions of the north, while others were rejected or modified. Some acted as catalysts and new forms were created. The brahmans settled in Tamilaham saw themselves as keepers of what they now regarded as sacrosanct Vedic tradition. The degree to which it was viewed as a contribution of the north is debatable, since sections of the Vedas had been composed or redacted at centres for Vedic study in the peninsula. More likely, the earlier process of Sanskrit becoming the hegemonic language through adoption and adaption was continued. However, in the peninsula its hegemony was not absolute, since the languages derived from Dravidian roots retained authority and were more widely used. Educated brahmans were becoming mobile and seeking new patrons since the mlechchha rulers of the north – the Shakas, Indo-Greeks, Kushanas and the Hunas – had been more supportive of Buddhism and Jainism, and of emergent Puranic religions. But the rulers of western India, the Kshatrapas, had been the first to use Sanskrit in their inscriptions, and others were patrons of brahmans.

  As keepers of the Vedic tradition, they were venerated and gradually found supporters in the kings of the peninsula who, like rulers anywhere, sought respectability by conforming to conservative tradition – in this case, the tradition as interpreted by the brahmans. The performance of rituals by the kings was an avenue to high status. The brahmans’ claim to be in communication with the gods, their supposed ability to manipulate unseen powers, and their conviction that they knew the correct mantra or formula to establish the well-being of the king, was probably more convincing to the kings than other claims. The belief that rituals bestow authority and power was widespread and an additional incentive was the promise of heavenly rewards. Frequently the rituals were from the Agamas, although Vedic practices continued. These would be the occasions that allowed some merging of both traditions.

  The Vedic tradition was not confined to rituals. Commentaries on the Vedic corpus had encouraged the existing discussion of philosophical ideas. The evolution of philosophical schools was now recognized in many parts of the subcontinent. Some philosophers were anxious to revitalize Vedic thought and this would have been an accompaniment to establishing mathas and ghatikas. But revitalization involves making changes. One way of making philosophy based on the Vedic corpus more acceptable was by reducing its obscurities, thereby making it comprehensible to the educated. This was attempted by Shankaracharya, who accepted the challenge to Brahmanism from the Buddhists and the Jainas and the popular devotional sects, and attempted to meet it.

  Coming from Kerala, he wrote and taught probably in the eighth-ninth century, although his dates remain controversial and could be of a later period. He achieved fame for his study of the Vedic system and as the new interpreter of Vedanta philosophy. He also rekindled a greater interest in the Upanishads through his commentaries elaborating on the relation between the atman, the individual soul, and the brahman, the universal soul, realized through jnana, appropriate knowledge.

  Shankara argued in favour of a Monist position where reality is seen as advaita, non-dual; and that the world we see around us is maya, illusion, for the reality lies beyond and cannot be perceived through existing human senses. Asceticism alone enables one to control these senses and direct them in a manner that permits a glimpse of the ultimate reality. He was opposed to unnecessary and meaningless ritual and established his own mathas, where a simplified worship was practised and a systematized Vedanta was taught. These were visualized as parallel to monasteries and are said to have been located at Badrinath in the Himalayas, Puri in Orissa, Dvarka on the western coast, and the most important at Shringeri in the south. All these places collected large numbers of pilgrims and have been viewed as located at the four corners of the subcontinent. However, there is some chronological discrepancy since inscriptions relating to the Shankaracharya mathas are later. This has led to considerable debate over the chronology of the mathas. These institutions were richly endowed and soon had branches elsewhere, which became centres of Shankara’s teaching. A hierarchy of control emerged in these institutions, taking the form of an ecclesiastical organization, but it did not become a parallel to the state, however influential it might have been in matters of administration.

  Shankaracharya is said to have visited many centres of learning and debated with leading scholars, such as Madanamishra, Kumarila Bhatta and Prabhakara, as well as various Buddhist and Jaina scholars. He encouraged members of his ascetic order to propagate his teaching as pan of a missionary enterprise. The philosophical forms and the institutional organization adopted by Shankara often paralleled or imitated those of the Buddhists. The latter were understandably indignant at a movement intended to undermine them by using their own methods. This is reflected, for instance, in the disparaging description of Shankara in a sixteenth-century Tibetan history of Buddhism by the Lama Taranatha. That Shankara saw Buddhism as a threat points to the continuing importance of Buddhist thought. The critique of some of Shankara’s writing from non-Buddhist sources goes back to the comments of Ramanuja in the twelfth century.

  Debates and discussions among scholars were common practice, and their public role derived from the earlier Shramanic tradition. It was also an age of commentaries and exegeses on what was regarded as established tradition, which was now being reinterpreted among new social groups. The commentaries and the glosses often carried new ideas. Where they were departures from earlier thinking they have a historical significance. The sources of law, for example, were changing and more emphasis was given to customary law of the family, the guild and the jati.

  Shankara’s enthusiasm in debating with his opponents and their reasoned responses contributed to a tradition that spurred philosophical centres into new speculative thinking, even if this sometimes encouraged conservative thought. Shankara’s philosophy contained within it the possibilities of negative reactions as well. Among these was the argument that if the world around us is an illusion there is little incentive to understand how it functions or to derive empirical knowledge from it.

  Vedic philosophy and practice was not the only culture that marked a presence in the south. Other groups, either anti-Vedic or non-Vedic in teaching, had also evolved and now had a presence. Apart from Jainism and Buddhism, there were Bhagavata and Pashupata sects, preaching devotion to Vishnu and Shiva respectively. Their rituals were described in the Agamas of each sect. The emphasis was on personal worship. The offerings as part of the ritual of puja were generally flowers, fruit and grain rather than the sacrifice of animals. The rituals drew on the believed efficacy of mantras, involving the worship of icons located in temples and the liturgies connected with this worship. This was a more comprehensible form of worship than the complicated Vedic and other rituals performed by kings under the guidance of their priests, and was to strike root in the populace.

  Although orthodox brahmans initially dismissed the devotional movement, the latter eventually proved more popular than other religious trends in the south, and this was recognized even by royal patrons. The Tamil devotional movement was deeply affected by Vaishnavism and Shaivism in the choice of deity. Some sects were hostile to Buddhism and Jainism, but were nevertheless influenced by these religions. These sects were among the early expressions of what has been called the Bhakti movement.

  This all-embracing label is used for various sectarian movements of the subcontinent at different times. Many of these had similarities, although they were by no means identical. There were many strands in the Bhakti tradition that need to be seen as distinct. As a broad-based tradition it registered forcefully a key characteristic of religion in India: that formalism was required of a small status-determined group, but for the majority religion remained an area of interplay, accommodation, contestation of a localized kind, and experimentation in seeking the emotional and psychological responses associated with religious belief and practice. The sectarian identity was the more recognizable identity. The essentials of religion lay in the articulation of these latter groups –
in their compositions, their forms of worship and their places of worship. This tends to be overlooked by those who see religion unfold solely through a series of texts.

  It could be argued that Vaishnavism and Shaivism were but a religious form given to movements that would have surfaced in any case. In this sense, they were an expression of local sentiment questioning the attempts at homogenization made by Vedic Brahmanism, with its insistence on orthodox practices and social inequality. Buddhists and Jainas were less popular in the devotional movement because they were said to mortify their bodies through ascetic practices as a form of worship. But this was not the sole reason for some of the more prominent teachers having converted from Jainism, and relations between Jainism and the Tamil devotional movement have not been adequately investigated. The appearance of this movement was not unexpected since it had a long gestation period, particularly if its origins are sought in the Shangam poems of love from which the poetry of love and devotion is said to have evolved. The deity as lover could sometimes inspire the most powerful poetry on the interface of the sacred and the erotic.

  The devotional poetry focuses on the individual’s search for liberation from rebirth, on devotion as a path to liberation, and on a preference for avoiding violence. Love was directed to a deity. The devotional aspect was formulated in a relationship between man or woman and their deity of choice, a relationship based on love, and on the grace which the deity bestowed on the worshipper. This formulation had not been so strongly emphasized in earlier religious thought. The worshipper, recognizing a feeling of inadequacy, would declare his love for his deity who was believed to permit a reciprocal relationship. This is described poignantly in one of the earliest Tamil poems of this tradition, dedicated to Murugan.

  When you see his face praise him with joy,

  worship him with joined palms, bow before him,

  so that his feet touch your head.

  Holy and mighty will be his form