Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography

by Sanyal, Sanjeev

  The history of India’s geography and civilization reminds us of the insignificance of each generation in the vastness of time. The greatest of India’s monarchs and thinkers too felt it. So they left behind their stories and thoughts in ballads, folk-tales, epics and inscriptions. Even if these memories are not always literally true, what matters is that they carry on the essence of India’s civilization. On the island of Mauritius, descendants of Indian immigrants have transferred their memories of the river Ganga to a lake, Ganga Talao, that they now hold as sacred. A very long time ago, their distant ancestors would have similarly transferred the memory of the Saraswati to the Ganga. Geography is not just about the physical terrain, but also about the meaning that we attribute to it. Thus, the Saraswati flows, invisibly, at Allahabad.

  Author’s Note

  This book is about the history of India’s geography although I do not have any formal training as either a historian or as a geographer. Yet, as I wrote this book, it felt like I have been preparing for it for all my adult life. Ideas, facts and conversations that I seem to have hidden away somewhere in my head all came tumbling out as I wrote out the chapters one by one. My profession as an economist, my love of old maps and wildlife, my studies of urban habitats and my many travels through India and South-East Asia began to slowly fit together into a mosaic.

  Still, it was no easy journey. I read through ancient religious texts, the writings of medieval travellers and scores of academic papers on seemingly unrelated and arcane topics. Often it took several readings before I could make sense of them, but I struggled on because, as my family and friends will attest, the topic had become an obsession. It drove me eventually to take time off from my professional career to travel around India for two and half years to collect material. Indeed, I discovered that many of the texts make sense only if one has actually visited the places to which they refer. I would probably have kept going if my editors at Penguin had not simply taken the draft away from me.

  Given the eclectic nature of this book, it could not have been written without the advice and support of many people. Let me begin by thanking Ravi Singh and Michel Danino, who were ready with advice and encouragement at every stage of the book. This book benefitted greatly from their extensive collections of papers and books. I am grateful to Divyabhanusinh Chavda, Vidula Jayaswal, R.S. Bisht, Pratik Bhatnagar, Mahesh Rangarajan, Partha Majumdar, Manoshi Lahiri, Susheel Menon, Ramachandra Guha, Jose Dominic, Abdul Hakim and Lalji Singh for their many suggestions. Let me also thank the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussourie), the Survey of India (Dehradun), the World-Wide Fund for Nature, the Archaeological Survey of India, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, The Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Vivekananda Kendra and the Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore.

  I enjoyed the hospitality of many kind hosts on my travels. Let me take this opportunity to thank Suresh Neotia, Upendra Gupta, Sajjan and Sangita Jindal, Dushyant Singh, Abhijit Pandit, Sheila Nair, Maharaj Gaj Singh, Ranjit Barthakur, Shree Raman, Vineet Saran and Praveen Rengaraj. My dear friends Jayant Sinha, Peter Ruprecht, Ashish Goyal, Siddharth Yog and Arvind Sethi read drafts at different stages and gave me useful insights on style and readability.

  Of course, the book would not have been possible without the diligence and enthusiasm of my editors Udayan Mitra and Ameya Nagarajan. It was a pleasure working with them. I am also grateful for the support of my extended family, particularly my father, with whom I continue to debate the meaning of the Rig Veda. Lastly, I wish to thank my wife Smita who put her life on hold for almost three years, accompanied me on my travels and patiently heard me read out the very first draft of each chapter.

  Notes

  INTRODUCTION

  1. The 2011 tiger census came up with a count of 1706. This is up from 1411 from the 2007 census. It is unclear if the increase is due to better conservation or better counting.

  2. The Gayatri Mantra is one of the most popular hymns in the Hindu tradition. It is contained in the Rig Veda and has been translated and interpreted by many scholars. Here is my attempt: ‘As you light up the Heavens and the Earth, O Radiant Sun, So light up my Mind and Soul’.

  3. India, A History, John Keay. HarperCollins, 2001.

  4. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  1. OF GENETICS AND TECTONICS

  1. ‘The Making and Unmaking of a Supercontinent: Rodinia Revisited’, Joseph Meert and Trond H. Torsvik. Tectonophysics, vol. 375, November 2003.

  2. The story of the siege of Delhi is fascinating. The interested reader should read The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple. Penguin Viking, 2006.

  3. ‘Study on Restoration of Dying Lakes: Case study on Balsamand Lake in Jodhpur’, published by The Sustainable Planet Institute and AFPRO, February, 2010.

  4. There was probably an intermediate but short-lived super-continent called Pannotia prior to the formation of Pangea.

  5. ‘The biogeographic and tectonic history of India’, John Briggs. Journal of Biogeography, 2003.

  6. ‘Bones to Pick’, Uday Mahurkar. India Today, 8 November 2010.

  7. ‘Fossil find in Gujarat tweaks India’s breakaway story’, The Indian Express, 27 October 2010; ‘The first keroplatid species from the Lower Eocene amber of Vastan, Gujarat, India’, Monica Kraemer and Neal Evenhuis. Zootaxa, 2008.

  8. It appears that India was not entirely ecologically isolated during its northward drift. John Briggs has found that India still received some new mainland species during the period. The process is not yet entirely understood. ‘The biogeographic and tectonic history of India’, John Briggs. Journal of Biogeography, 2003.

  9. http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science /nature/news/article_1069908.php/Mammoth_genes_resemble_those_of_Asian_elephant_scientists

  10. ‘World’s most ancient race traced in DNA study’, Steve Connor. The Independent, 1 May 2009.

  11. ‘Major genomic mitochondrial lineages delineate early human expansions’, Nicole Maca-Meyer et al. BMC Genetics, 2001.

  12. There may have been another related group that struck north towards the Levant. It is unclear if this group made a separate crossing from Africa via the Sinai or split from the original band soon after the first crossing.

  13. We have learnt a lot in recent decades about the early migrations of modern humans from archaeology and genetic data. However, it is still an evolving area of research, and there is a confusing and, sometimes, contradictory array of research. For a good survey of the material read The Incredible Human Journey, Alice Roberts. Bloomsbury, 2009; Out of Eden: Peopling of the World, Stephen Oppenheimer. C&R, 2003.

  14. The Circulation of the Persian Gulf, J. Kampf and M. Sadrinasab, Ocean Science Discussions, 2005. http://www.ocean-scidiscuss.net/2/129/2005/osd-2-129-2005

  15. There is controversial new research that, during this period, modern humans may have even mated with Neanderthals. The Neanderthals were a closely related but parallel species and it was long considered that they left behind no descendants. However, new research by Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that they have left behind tiny traces of their genes amongst us. While I am not entirely convinced by the study, it is strange to think that many of us may not be ‘pure’ modern humans! See: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18869-neanderthal-genome-reveals-interbreeding-with-humans.xhtml?full=true

  16. Comment by K.K. Abu-Amero et al. in ‘New Light on Human Pre-History in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis’, Jeffrey Rose. Current Anthropology, December 2010.

  17. ‘Reconstructing Indian-Australian phylogenetic link’, Satish Kumar et al. BMC Evolutionary Biology, July 2009.

  18. The Story of India, Michael Wood, BBC Worldwide, 2008.

  19. ‘Shoreline Reconstructions for the Persian Gulf since the last Glacial Maximum’, Kurt Lambeck. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, ANU, 1996.

  20. ‘New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis’,
Jeffrey Rose. Current Anthropology, December, 2010.

  21. ‘Recent Marine Archaeological Finds in Khambat, Gujarat’, S. Kathiroli et. al. Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, 2004.

  22. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond, Vintage, 2005.

  23. Readers should recognize that genetics is a young science and still evolving. In addition, subsequent migrations have obscured many of the markers of the original migrations. Therefore, the schematic framewords discussed in this section is at best a broad description. The reality would have been far more messy, with groups and sub-groups going back and forth and interbreeding with yet other groups.

  24. ‘Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists’, Sengupta et al, The American Journal of Human Genetics, February 2006.

  25. ‘Reconstructing Indian Population History’, David Reich et al., Nature, September 2009.

  26. Geneticist Thangarajan, one of the co-authors of the study, said in a press interview that the ASI group may date to 60,000 years ago and the ANI to 40,000. So, we are dealing with very old populations.

  27. The genetic sub-groups are named by adding letters or alphabets to a lineage. So, R1a1 is a subgroup derived from R1a that in turn is derived from R1 and so on.

  28. ‘Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a’, Peter Underhill et al., European Journal of Human Genetics, 2010.

  29. ‘A prehistory of Indian Y Chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios’, Sanghamitra Sahoo et al, University of Cambridge, November 2005.

  30. ‘A prehistory of Indian Y Chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios’, Sanghamitra Sahoo et al. The National Academy of Sciences, USA, 2006.

  31. ‘Mystery of Our Origins’, Dr. Lalji Singh, NAAS News, October–November 2009.

  32. I collated material from various sources but the reader could use ‘Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes with reference to R1a’, Underhill et al., European Journal of Human Genetics, 2009: ‘The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1 substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system’, S. Sharma et al., Journal of Human Genetics, January 2009; ‘The Genetic Heritage of the Earliest Settlers Persists Both in Indian Tribal and Caste Populations’, Kivisild et al, American Journal of Human Genetics, 2003.

  33. ‘The Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1 substantiates the autochthonous origin of Brahmins and the caste system’, S. Sharma et al., Journal of Human Genetics, January 2009.

  34. It is possible that the varna framework was no more than an intellectual effort to understand and rationalize the bubbling milieu of jatis. Scholarship based purely on texts has allowed the tail to wag the dog.

  2. PEOPLE OF THE LOST RIVER

  1. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  2. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, Upinder Singh. Pearson, 2009.

  3. Discussions at international seminar on ‘How Deep are the Roots of Indian Civilization?’, Delhi, 25–27 November 2010.

  4. Beyond the Three Seas: Travellers’ Tales of Mughal India, (ed.) Michael Fischer. Random House India, 2007.

  5. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  6. India: A History, John Keay. HarperCollins, 2000.

  7. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  8. The Penguin History of Early India, Romila Thapar. Penguin, 2002

  9. The Penguin History of Early India, Romila Thapar. Penguin, 2002

  10. The Saraswati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture, B.B. Lal. ABI. New Delhi, 2002.

  11. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  12. Indo-Aryan Origins and Other Vedic Issues, Nicholas Kazanas. Aditya Prakashan, 2009.

  13. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture, Edwin Bryant. Oxford University Press, 2001.

  14. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, Upinder Singh. Pearson, 2009.

  15. It can even be argued that Dasa refers to the Daha tribes of north-eastern Iran.

  16. The words ‘krishna ayas’, black bronze, may not mean iron. In that case, even the Atharva Veda is ignorant of iron and we can date the Vedas even earlier, in the third millennium.

  17. ‘Beginnings of agriculture in the Vindhya–Ganga Region’, Radha Kant Verma, Chapter 3 in History of Science Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, (ed.) D.P. Chattopadhyay, Centre for Studies in Civilizations, 2008. Also in A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, Upinder Singh, Pearson, 2009.

  18. ‘The Horse and the Aryan Debate’, Michel Danino, Journal of Indian History and Culture, September 2006.

  19. Hymn LXI, Book VI, Rig Veda calls the Saraswati ‘seven-sistered, sprung from three fold source’.

  20. The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati, Michel Danino. Penguin, 2010.

  21. http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals /species_info.php?id=65, http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41756/0

  22. Rig Veda Hymn LXIV of Book X describes the wider Vedic landscape and includes the Saraswati, the Sarayu and the Indus. It speaks of forests, mountains, ‘tribes of varied sort’ and, most interestingly, of ‘thrice-seven wandering rivers’. The ‘thrice-seven’ rivers are mentioned in several other hymns. One does not have to literally take this to mean twenty-one rivers but the Sapta-Sindhu is obviously a sub-set of the overall Vedic landscape.

  23. Rig Veda, Book VII, Hymn XXXVI, Stanza 6.

  24. See Mandala 7 of the Rig Veda (there are many translations but one can use The Hymns of the Rigveda VI, (trans.) Ralph Griffith, 1896—http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/griffith.pdf).

  25. The Bharatas are also referred to as the Trtsu in the Rig Veda.

  26. Panini was a grammarian from around the fifth century BC. In an explanation of grammatical forms, he states that saying, ‘Eastern Bharatas’ is superfluous as everyone knows that the Bharatas are an eastern tribe. Of course, Panini lived many centuries after the Rig Veda but we have no reason to disbelieve him as his statement agrees with the other circumstantial evidence.

  27. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India, Upinder Singh. Pearson, 2009. Also see Mandala 7 of the Rig Veda (use The Hymns of the Rig Veda VI, (trans.) Ralph Griffith, 1896. http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/griffith.pdf).

  28. The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture, Edwin Bryant. Oxford University Press (OUP), 2001.

  29. This is how the term ‘Hindu’ came to mean Indians and eventually gave its name to the country’s dominant religion.

  30. http://www.yeziditruth.org/ yezidi_religious_tradition, ‘Yezidism: Historical Roots’, by Tosine Reshid, International Journal of Kurdish Studies, 2005.

  3. THE AGE OF LIONS

  1. The Penguin History of Early India, Romila Thapar. Penguin,2002.

  2. Kim, Rudyard Kipling, 1901.

  3. ‘Ravana worshipped on Dussehra in Madhya Pradesh’, The Times of India, 5 October 2011.

  4. The Lost City of Dvarka, S.R. Rao, Aditya Prakashan, 1999 and An Ancient Harbour at Dwarka, A.S. Gaur et al. National Institute of Oceanography, Current Science, May 2004.

  5. China: A History, John Keay. HarperCollins 2008.

  6. The Mahabharata also contains a sub-plot about Ulupi, a Naga princess, and her rivalry with Chitrangada over Arjuna. This is interesting given the modern-day frictions between the Nagas and the Manipuris. Since I am not sure that today’s Naga tribes relate to the Naga tribe mentioned in the Mahabharata, I have left this out of the main text. Nonetheless, there are some interesting coincidences. Arjuna and Ulupi had a son called Iravan, a minor character in the epic, who is depicted in folk art in faraway Tamil Nadu as a decapitated head. The tribes of Nagaland practised headhunting into living memory. One wonders whether ther
e is a link.

  7. China: A History, John Keay. HarperCollins 2008.

  8. The Story of Asia’s Lions, Divyabhanusinh Chavda. Marg Publications, 2008.

  9. This continued into much later times—Singapore was named after a lion whereas the animal in question was almost certainly a tiger.

  10. The April 2010 census showed that Gir has 162 mature females, 97 mature males and 152 cubs. This is up from around 180 in the 1960s.

  11. The Story of Asia’s Lions, Divyabhanusinh Chavda. Marg Publications, 2008.

  12. The Penguin History of Early India, Romila Thapar. Penguin, 2002

  13. It is difficult to date this compendium but a version of this document probably existed by the third century BC. The text clearly states that surgery was a well-established science by the time the compendium was written. So, it is reasonable to say that this body of knowledge was systematized in the late Iron Age. However, it appears to have been repeatedly edited in later centuries. The current version of the text may be as late as the fifth century AD.

  14. The Roots of Ayurveda, Dominik Wijastyk. Penguin, 2001.

  15. The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch and Justin. J.W. McCrindle, Archibald Constable & Co., 1896. Reprinted 1984 by Eastern Book House.

  16. The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch and Justin. J.W. McCrindle, Archibald Constable & Co., 1896. Reprinted 1984 by Eastern Book House.

  17. Some scholars argue that Kautilya and Chanakya were different people but I have stuck to the traditional view here.

  18. The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great as described by Arrian, Q. Curtius, Diodorus, Plutarch and Justin. J.W. McCrindle, Archibald Constable & Co., 1896. Reprinted 1984 by Eastern Book House.

  19. There is another tradition that he remained a minister into Bindusara’s reign.