Katherine Ulrich read several long, long drafts, catching many howlers as well as stylistic tics, pinpointing obscurities, suggesting books and articles, challenging unsupported assumptions, and sustaining me with no-nonsense, appreciative, and often hilarious comments. To cap it all, she gave me the image of the composite horse that appears on the jacket of this book, not just finding it but buying it and carrying it back from India for me. This book is dedicated to her and to William Dalrymple, who stood by me at the lecture in London in 2003 when someone threw an egg at me and who then threw down a gauntlet in his subsequent article about the need to tell the history of Hinduism in a new way. I am grateful to him not only for his encouragement but for the example that he sets in his own work, writing about the history of India in a way that brings it alive to readers of all backgrounds and raises the important issues that give such writing its life and meaning.
Truro, August 2008
CHRONOLOGY
BCE
c. 50,000 Stone Age cultures arise
c. 30,000 Bhimbetka cave paintings are made
c. 6500 Agriculture begins
c. 4000-3000 *Indo-European breaks up into separate
languages
c. 3000 Pastoral nomad societies emerge
c. 2500 Urban societies merge along the Indus
River
c. 2200-2000 Harappa is at its height
c. 2100-2000 Light-spoked chariots are invented
c. 2000-1500 The Indus Valley civilization declines
c. 1900 The Sarasvati River dries up
c. 1700-1500 Horses arrive in Northwest India
c. 1700-1500 Nomads in the Punjab compose the
Rig Veda; horses arrive in Northwest India
c. 1350 Hittite inscriptions speak about horses
and gods
c. 1200-900 The Vedic people compose the Yajur
Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda
c. 1100-1000 Vedic texts mention the Doab, the
area between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers
c. 1000 The city of Kaushambi in Vatsa is founded
c. 950 The Mahabharata battle is said to have taken place
c. 900 The city of Kashi (Varanasi, Benares) is founded
c. 900 The Vedic people move down into the Ganges Valley
c. 800-600 The Brahmanas are composed
c. 600-500 Aranyakas are composed
c. 500 Shrauta Sutras are composed
c. 500 Pataliputra is founded; Vedic peoples gradually move southward
c. 500-400 Early Upanishads are composed
c. 483 or 410 Siddhartha Gautama, the
Buddha, dies
c. 468 Vardhamana Mahavira, the Jina, founder of Jainism, dies
c. 400-100 Later Upanishads are composed
c. 400-100 Writing is used in the Ganges Valley
c. 327-325 Alexander the Great invades Northwest South Asia
c. 324 Chandragupta founds the Mauryan dynasty
c. 300 Grihya Sutras are composed
c. 300-100 Dharma-Sutras are composed
c. 300 Greeks and Ashoka mention Pandyas, Cholas, and Cheras
c. 265-232 Ashoka reigns
c. 250 The Third Buddhist Council takes place at Pataliputra
c. 185 The Mauryan dynasty ends
c. 185 Pushyamitra founds the Shunga dynasty
73 The Shunga dynasty ends
c. 166 BCE-78 CE Greeks, Scythians, Bactrians, and Parthians enter India
c. 300 BCE-300 CE The Mahabharata is composed
c. 200 BCE-200 CE The Ramayana is composed
CE
c. 78-140 Kanishka reigns and encourages Buddhism
c. 100 Cankam (“assembly”) poetry is composed
c. 100 “Manu” composes his Dharma-shastra
c. 150 The monuments of Bharhut and Sanchi are built
c. 150 Rudradaman publishes the first Sanskrit inscription, at Junagadh
c. 200 Kautilya composes the Artha-shastra
c. 300 Vatsyayana Mallanaga composes the Kama-sutra
320-550 The Gupta dynasty reigns from Pataliputra
350-750 The early Puranas are composed
c. 375 The Pallava dynasty is founded
c. 400-477 Kalidasa writes Sanskrit plays and long poems
405-411 Faxian visits India
c. 450 The Harivamsha is composed
455-467 The Huns attack North India
c. 460-477 The Vakataka dynasty completes the
caves at Ajanta
c. 500-900 Nayanmar Shaiva Tamil poets live
550-575 Kalachuris create the cave of Shiva at Elephanta
c. 550-880 Chalukya dynasty thrives
c. 600-930 Alvar Vaishnava Tamil poets live
606-647 Harsha reigns at Kanauj
630-644 Xuan Zang (Hsuan Tsang) visits India
650-800 Early Tantras are composed
c. 650 Arabs reach the Indus
711-715 Arabs invade Northwest India
750-1500 Medieval Puranas are composed
765-773 Raja Krishna I creates the Kailasa temple to Shiva at Ellora
c. 788-820 Shankara, nondualist philosopher, lives in Kerala
c. 800 Manikkavacakar composes the Tiruvacakam
c. 880-1200 The Chola Empire dominates
South India
900 and 1150 The Chandellas build the temples at Khajuraho
c. 975-1025 Abhinavagupta, Shaiva philosopher, lives in Kashmir
1001 Mahmud of Ghazni (979-1030) raids North India
1021 Ghaznavid (Turkish) Muslim capital
established at Lahore
c. 1056-1137 Ramanuja, qualified Dualist philosopher, lives in Tamil country
1192-1206 Muhammad of Ghor establishes Ghorid capital at Delhi
c. 1200 Jayadeva lives in Bengal
1210-1526 The Delhi Sultanate is in power
1325-1351 Muhammad bin Tughluq reigns
c. 1200 Early orders of Sufis arise in North India
c. 1200 Virashaivas, including Basava, live in South India
1238-1258 Narasimhadeva I builds the temple of Konarak
c. 1238-1317 Madhva, dualist philosopher, lives in Karnataka
c. 1300 Shri Vaishnavas split into Cats and Monkeys
c. 1336-1565 Vijayanagar Empire is in its prime
c. 1398-1448 Kabir lives
1399 Timur, ruler of Central Asia, destroys Delhi
1469-1539 Guru Nanak founds Sikhism in the Punjab
1486-1533 Chaitanya lives
1498-1597 Mirabai lives
1526 Babur founds the Mughal Empire
1530-1556 Humayun reigns
1532-1623 Tulsidas lives
1556-1605 Akbar reigns
1600 (December 31) Queen Elizabeth I charters the
British East India Company
1605-1627 Jahangir reigns
1608-1649 Tukaram lives
1622-1673 Kshetrayya lives
1627-1658 Shah Jahan reigns
1658-1707 Aurangzeb reigns
1713-1719 Farrukhsiyar reigns
1750-1755 The Bengal Famine causes ten million deaths
1756 The Black Hole of Calcutta causes dozens of deaths
1757 The British East India Company defeats the Muslim rulers in Bengal
1757 First wave of British Raj begins
1765 Robert Clive becomes chancellor of Bengal
1772-1833 Rammohun Roy lives; 1828 founds Brahmo Samaj
1782-1853 Sir Charles James Napier lives
1813 Second wave of British Raj begins
1824-1883 Dayananda Sarasvati; 1875, founds Arya Samaj
1857-1858 The Rebellion, formerly known as the Mutiny, takes place
1857 Third wave of the British Raj begins
1858 The British viceroy officially replaces Mughal
rule (and the East India Company)
1863-1902 Swami Vivekananda lives
1865-1936 Rudyard Kipling lives
1869-1948 Mohandas Karamchand Gan
dhi,
known as Mahatma Gandhi, lives
1861-1941 Rabindranath Tagore lives
1875 Helena Blavatsky founds the Theosophical Society
1893 Vivekananda attends the World’s Parliament
of Religions in Chicago
1897 Vivekananda founds the Vedanta movement in America
1896-1977 A. C. Bhaktivedanta, Swami Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), lives
1918-2008 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (founder of Transcendental Meditation) lives
1919 Amritsar massacre takes place
1931-1990 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) lives
1947 Independence; Partition
1970- Hindus in Europe, United States, and
Canada start building temples
GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING
OF WORDS IN SANSKRIT AND OTHER
INDIAN LANGUAGES
Sanskrit vowels are pronounced very much like Italian vowels. The aspirated consonants should be pronounced distinctly: bh as in “cab horse,” dh as in “mad house,” gh as in “dog house,” ph as in “top hat,” and th as in “goat herd.”
Traditionally, scholars have used diacriticals to distinguish between long and short vowels and among three different forms of s in Sanskrit, as well as to mark other nice points of the orthography of Sanskrit and other Indian languages that are essential for the citation of texts. Increasingly, scholars writing for a wider audience that is blissfully ignorant of any Indian language have omitted the diacriticals and changed two of the s’s to sh’s (leaving the third an s tout court), and this book follows that practice. This may result in some confusion for readers contemplating the spellings of certain words in this book, such as the name of the gods Shiva and Vishnu, and noting that they are sometimes spelled elsewhere—in works cited in my text or bibliography—as Siva and Visnu. I hope and trust that readers will be able to deal with this conflict, and also to distinguish the Kali Age (Kali with short a and short i) from the goddess Kali (Kālī with long a and long i).
Many words in modern Indian languages derived from Sanskrit drop the final short a of the Sanskrit, so that Rama sometimes becomes Ram, Lakshmana becomes Lakshman, Hastinapura becomes Hastinapur, and Vijayanagara becomes Vijayanagar. (“Dharma” often becomes “dharam.”) As for the British distortions of words in Sanskrit and other Indian languages (Hindoo, suttee), they are often bizarre but usually recognizable.
ABBREVIATIONS
TEXTS
POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS
ABVP: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All-India Students’ Council)
BJP: Bharatiya Janata Party (Peoples’ Party of India)
RSS: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteers’ Organization)
VHP: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council)
GLOSSARY OF TERMS IN INDIAN LANGUAGES AND NAMES OF KEY FIGURES
Abhinavagupta: philosopher of Kashmir Shaivism, 975-1025 CE
Aditi: “Infinity,” name of a Vedic goddess of creation, mother of the Adityas, solar gods
Adivasis : “Original inhabitants,” indigenous inhabitants of India, tribal peoples
Advaita: nondualism, a philosophical school, propounded by Shankara
Agastya: a mythical sage said to have brought Sanskrit south to the Tamil land and also established Tamil there
Agni: Vedic god of fire (ignis)
agrahara: “taking the field,” a grant of temple land to Brahmins
ahimsa: nonviolence, literally “a lack of the desire to harm”
akam: word used in Tamil poetry for the interior world, the world of love
Akbar: Mughal emperor, 1556-1605, noted for his religious pluralism
Alvars : Tamil Vaishnava saints
Amba: “Mother,” name of a woman in the Mahabharata who was reborn as a man; also the name of a goddess
Ambalika: “Dear Little Mother,” name of the mother of Pandu in the Mahabharata
Ambika: “Little Mother,” name of the mother of Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata
apad-dharma: the permissive religious law that prevails in time of emergency
Apala: a woman who pressed soma in her mouth for the god Indra in the Rig Veda
Appar: one of the first three Tamil Nayanmar saints, sixth to eighth century
Apsarases : “Gliding in the Waters,” celestial nymphs and courtesans
Arjuna: one of the five sons of Pandu in the Mahabharata, fathered by the god Indra
Artha-shastra: textbook of political science
Arya Samaj: a religious movement founded by Dayananda Sarasvati in Bengal in 1875
Aryas : “nobles,” name by which the Vedic people referred to themselves
Ashoka: Mauryan emperor, 265-232 BCE, author of the first surviving writing in India, edicts in stone
ashrama: a hermitage; also a stage or way of life (there are four: chaste student, householder, forest dweller, renouncer)
Ashvaghosha: a first century CE poet, author of a life of the Buddha
Ashvins : “Horsemen,” twin half horse gods, sons of Saranyu and the sun
Asuras : antigods, enemies of the gods in heaven; originally, the older gods
Atharva Veda: the fourth Veda, largely devoted to magic spells
atman: the self, the individual soul, identical with the world soul (atman or brahman)
Aurangzeb : a Mughal emperor, 1658-1707 CE, noted for his chauvinism
avatar: a “descent” of a god, particularly an incarnation of the god Vishnu
Avesta: the sacred text of the ancient Iranians
Ayur-veda: the Veda of long life, the science of medicine
Babur: the first Mughal emperor, 1483-1530
Backward Castes: one of many names for the lowest and most oppressed castes
Bali: a demon undone by his generosity to the god Vishnu, who had become incarnate as a dwarf
Bana: a poet in the court of Harsha, author of a biography of Harsha
banyan: a sacred tree that puts down multiple roots
Basava: a Brahmin who founded the Virashaiva movement, c. 1106-1167 CE
Bhagavad Gita: a philosophical text, spoken by the god Krishna to the prince Arjuna, in the Mahabharata
Bhagavan: a name of god, Vishnu or Shiva
Bhagavata: a worshiper of the gods Vishnu or Shiva
Bhagiratha: a sage who brought the Ganges down to earth from the Milky Way
bhakta: devotee of a god
bhakti: passionate devotion to a god who returns that love
Bharata: younger brother of Rama; also the name of the son of Shakuntala and Dushyanta and an ancient name of India
Bharata-varsha: the land of India
Bhil, Bhilla: name of a tribal people
Bhima: one of the five sons of Pandu in the Mahabharata , fathered by the god Vayu, the wind
Bhishma: celibate son of Satyavati in the Mahabharata
Bhrigu: a powerful sage
Brahma: a god, responsible for the task of creation
brahman: the divine substance of the universe
Brahmanas : texts, from c. 800 to 600 BCE, explaining the Vedic rituals
Brahmin: the highest of the four classes, the class from which Vedic priests must come
Brahmo Samaj: a reform movement founded by Rammohun Roy in 1828
bride-price: a reverse dowry, paid by the groom to the family of the bride
Buddhification: casting a non-Buddhist as a Buddhist
Campantar: one of the first three Tamil Nayanmar saints, sixth to eighth century
Cankam: (from Sanskrit sangham): early Tamil literary assembly
Chaitanya: Bengali saint, 1486-1533 CE
Chamars : a Dalit caste, leatherworkers
Chandalas : a Dalit caste, workers in cremation grounds
Chandidas : a fourteenth-century CE Bengali poet
Chandika: “The Fierce,” a name of the Goddess
Chandra Gupta I : founder of the Gupta Empire in 324 CE
Chandragupta Maurya: founder of
the Mauryan Empire in 324 BCE
Charaka: author of a medical textbook
Charioteers (Sutas): a caste of charioteers and bards
Charvakas : Materialists, regarded as the paradigmatic heretics; also called Lokayatas
Cheras : an ancient South Indian kingdom
Cholas : an ancient South Indian kingdom
Clive, Robert: governor of Bengal from 1755-1760 ; chancellor from 1765
Cuntarar: one of the first three Tamil Nayanmar saints, sixth to eighth century
Dadhyanch: a Vedic sage whose head was replaced with a horse head
Daksha: a Vedic patriarch, father of Sati, who foolishly refused to invite the god Shiva to his sacrifice
Dalit: preferred contemporary word, derived from the Marathi/Hindi word for “oppressed,” for the lowest castes, formerly known as Untouchables
Dalitification: the process by which castes claim to be Dalits; the reverse of Sanskritization
darshan: “seeing,” the exchange of powerful gazes between god and worshiper, or king and subject
Dasa: “slave,” the word that the Vedic Aryas applied to their enemies
Dasyu: another word for “slave”
Deshification: the process by which the Sanskritic tradition absorbs local traditions
Devaki: royal mother of Krishna
dhamma: Pali for the Sanskrit term dharma; Buddhist law, and Ashokan law
dharma: religious law, justice, righteousness. See also sadharana, sanatana
dog cooker shva-paka: ancient term of opprobrium for Dalit castes
Draupadi: wife of the five Pandava brothers, heroine of the Mahabharata, later a goddess
Dravida: Sanskrit word for South India
Dravidian: a language group from South India that includes Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam
The Hindus Page 88