Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  If you fly by aeroplane from India to Europe, you will pass over these ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek. You will see where Babylon was, and many another place famous in history, and now no more.

  36

  South India Colonizes

  April 28, 1932

  We have wandered far. Let us now return to India again and try to find out what our forebears in this country were doing. You will remember the borderland empire of the Kushans—the great Buddhist State comprising the whole of northern India and a good bit of Central Asia—with its capital at Purushapura or Peshawar. You will also perhaps remember that about this period in the south of India there was a great State stretching from sea to sea—the Andhra State. For about 300 years the Kushans and the Andhras flourished. About the middle of the third century after Christ these two empires ceased to be, and for a period India had a number of small States. Within 100 years, however, another Chandragupta arose in Pataliputra and started a period of aggressive Hindu imperialism. But before we go on to the Guptas, as they are called, we might have a look at the beginnings of great enterprises in the south, which were to carry Indian art and culture to distant islands of the East.

  You know well the shape of India, as she lies between the Himalayas and the two seas. The north is far removed from the sea. Its main preoccupation in the past has been the land frontier, over which enemies and invaders used to come. But east and west and south we have a tremendous sea-coast, and India narrows down till the east meets the west at Kanya Kumari or Cape Comorin. All these people living near the sea were naturally interested in it, and one would expect many of them to be seafaring folk. I have told you already of the great trade which South India had from the remotest times with the West. It is not surprising therefore to find that from early times shipbuilding existed in India and people crossed the seas in search of trade, or may be adventure. Vijaya is supposed to have gone from India and conquered Ceylon about the time Gautama the Buddha lived here. In the Ajanta caves, I think there is a representation of Vijaya crossing to Ceylon, with horses and elephants being carried across in ships. Vijaya gave the name Sinhala to the Island—“Sinhala Dweep”. Sinhala is derived from Sinha, a lion, and there is an old story about a lion, current in Ceylon, which I have forgotten. I suppose the word Ceylon is derived from Sinhala.

  India Colonizes

  The little crossing from South India to Ceylon was, of course, no great feat. But we have plenty of evidence of shipbuilding and people going across the seas from the many Indian ports which dotted the coastline from Bengal to Gujrat. Chanakya, the great Minister of Chandragupta Maurya, tells us something about the navy in his Arthashastra, about which I wrote to you from Naini. Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador at Chandragupta’s Court, also mentions it. Thus it appears that even at the beginning of the Mauryan period shipbuilding was a flourishing industry in India. And ships are obviously meant to be used. So quite a considerable number of people must have crossed the seas in them. It is strange and interesting to think of this, and then to think of some of our people even today who are afraid of crossing the seas and think it against their religion to do so. We cannot call these people relics of the past, for, as you see, the past was much more sensible. Fortunately, such extraordinary notions have largely disappeared now, and there are few people who are influenced by them.

  The south naturally looked more to the sea than the north. Most of the foreign trade was with the south, and Tamil poems are full of references to “yavana” wines and vases and lamps. “Yavana” was chiefly used for Greeks, but perhaps vaguely for all foreigners. The Andhra coins of the second and third centuries bear the device of a large two-masted ship, which shows how very much interested the old Andhras must have been in shipbuilding and sea-trade.

  It was the south, therefore, which took the lead in a great enterprise which resulted in establishing Indian colonies all over the islands in the East. These colonizing excursions started in the first century after Christ and they continued for hundreds of years. All over Malay and Java and Sumatra and Cambodia and Borneo they went, and established themselves and took Indian culture and Indian art with them. In Burma and Siam and Indo-China there were large Indian colonies. Many even of the names they gave to their new towns and settlements were borrowed from India—Ayodhya, Hastinapur, Taxila, Gandhara. Strange how history repeats itself! The Anglo-Saxon colonists who went to America did likewise, and in the United States today the names of old English cities are repeated.

  No doubt these Indian colonists misbehaved wherever they went, as all such colonists do. They must have exploited the people of the islands and lorded it over them. But after a while the colonists and the old inhabitants must have intermixed, for it was difficult to keep up regular contacts with India. Hindu States and empires were established in these eastern islands, and then Buddhist rulers came, and between the Hindu and the Buddhist there was a tussle for mastery. It is a long and fascinating story—the history of Further or Greater India, as it is called. Mighty ruins still tell us of the great buildings and temples that adorned these Indian settlements. There were great cities, built by Indian builders and craftsmen—Kamboja, Sri Vijaya, Angkor the Magnificent, Madjapahit.

  For nearly 1400 years these Hindu and Buddhist States lasted in these islands, contending against each other for mastery, changing hands, and occasionally destroying each other. In the fifteenth century the Muslims finally obtained control, and soon after came the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the Dutch and the English, and last of all the Americans. The Chinese, of course, had always been close neighbours, sometimes interfering and conquering; oftener living as friends and exchanging gifts; and all the time influencing them with their great culture and civilization.

  These Hindu colonies of the East have many things to interest us. The most striking feature is that the colonization was evidently organized by one of the principal governments of the day in southern India. At first many individual explorers must have gone; then later as trade developed families and groups of people must have gone on their own account. It is said that the early settlers were from Kalinga (Orissa) and the eastern coast. Perhaps some people went from Bengal also. There is also a tradition that some people from Gujrat, pushed out from their own homelands, went to these islands. But these are conjectures. The principal stream of colonists went from the Pallava country—the southern portion of the Tamil land, where a great Pallava dynasty was ruling. And it was this Pallava government that seems to have organized this colonization of Malaysia. Perhaps there was pressure of population owing to people pushing down from northern India. Whatever the reason may have been, settlements in widely scattered places, far from India, were deliberately planned and colonies were started in these places almost simultaneously. These settlements were in Indo-China, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Java and in other places. All these were Pallava colonies bearing Indian names. In Indo-China the settlement was called Kamboja (the present Kambodia), a name which came all the way from a Kamboja in the Kabul Valley in Gandhara.

  For 400 or 600 years these settlements remained Hindu in religion; then gradually Buddhism spread all over. Much later came Islam and spread in part of Malaysia, part remaining Buddhist.

  Empires and kingdoms came and went in Malaysia. But the real result of these colonizing enterprises of southern India was to introduce Indo-Aryan civilization in this part of the world, and to a certain extent the people of Malaysia today are the children of the same civilization as we are. They have had other influences also, notably the Chinese, and it is interesting to observe the mixture of these two powerful influences— the Indian and the Chinese—on the different countries of Malaysia. Some have been more Indianized; in others the Chinese element is more in evidence. On the mainland, in Burma, Siam and Indo-China, the Chinese influence is predominant—but not in Malay. In the islands, Java, Sumatra and others, Indian influence is more obvious, with a recent covering of Islam.

  But there was no conflict between the Indian and the Ch
inese influences. They were very dissimilar, and yet they could work on parallel lines without difficulty. In religion, of course, India was the fountain-head, whether it was Hinduism or Buddhism. Even China owed her religion to India. In art also Indian influence was supreme in Malaysia. Even in Indo-China, where Chinese influence was great, the architecture was wholly Indian. China influenced these continental countries more in regard to their methods of government and their general philosophy of life. So that today the people of Indo-China and Burma and Siam seem to be nearer akin to the Chinese than to the Indian. Of course, racially they have more of Mongolian blood in them, and this makes them resemble, to some extent, the Chinese.

  In Borobodur in Java are to be seen now the remains of great Buddhist temples built by Indian artisans. The whole story of the Buddha’s life is carved on the walls of these buildings, and they are a unique monument not only to the Buddha, but to the Indian art of that day.

  Indian influence went farther still. It reached the Philippines and even Formosa, which were both part, for a time, of the Hindu Sri Vijaya kingdom of Sumatra. Long afterwards the Philippines were ruled by the Spaniards, and now they are under American control. Manila is the capital city of the Philippines. A new legislative building was put up there some time ago and on its façade four figures have been carved representing the sources of Philippine culture. These figures are Manu, the great law-giver of ancient India; Lao-Tse, the philosopher of China; and two figures representing Anglo-Saxon law and justice, and Spain.

  37

  Hindu Imperialism under the Guptas

  April 29, 1932

  While men from South India were crossing the high seas and founding settlements and towns in distant places, in the north of India there was a strange ferment. The Kushan Empire had lost its strength and greatness and was becoming smaller and shrinking away. All over the north there were small States, often ruled by the descendants of the Sakas or Scythians or Turkis, who had come to India over the northwestern frontier. I have told you that these people were Buddhists and that they came to India not as enemies to raid but to settle down here. They were pushed inexorably from behind by other tribes in Central Asia, who in their turn were often pushed away by the Chinese kingdom. On coming to India these people largely adopted Indo-Aryan customs and traditions. They looked upon India as the parent country for religion and culture and civilization. The Kushans themselves had followed Indo-Aryan traditions to a large extent. This was indeed the reason why they managed to stay in India and rule over large parts of it for such a long time. They tried to behave as Indo-Aryans, and wanted the people of the country to forget that they were aliens. They succeeded in some measure, but not quite, for among the Kshattriyas especially the feeling rankled that aliens were ruling over them. They chafed under this foreign rule, and so the ferment grew and people’s minds were troubled. Ultimately these disaffected people found a capable leader, and under his banner they started a ‘holy war’, as it is called, to free Aryavarta.

  This leader was named Chandragupta. Do not mix him up with the other Chandragupta, the grandfather of Ashoka. This man had nothing to do with the Mauryan dynasty. It so happened that he was a petty Raja of Pataliputra, but the descendants of Ashoka had retired into obscurity by then. You must remember that we are now in the beginning of the fourth century after Christ—that is, about 308 AC. This was 534 years after Ashoka’s death.

  Chandragupta was ambitious and capable. He set out to win over the other Aryan chiefs in the north and to form a kind of federation with them. He married Kumara Devi of the famous and powerful Lichchhavi clan, and thus secured the support of this clan. Having prepared his ground carefully, Chandragupta proclaimed his “holy war” against all foreign rulers in India. The Kshattriyas and the Aryan aristocracy, deprived of their power and positions by the aliens, were at the back of this war. After a dozen years of fighting, Chandragupta managed to gain control of a part of northern India, including what are now known as the United Provinces. He then crowned himself King of kings.

  Thus began what is known as the Gupta dynasty. It lasted for about 200 years, till the Huns came to trouble it. It was a period of somewhat aggressive Hinduism and nationalism. The foreign rulers—the Turkis and Parthians and other non-Aryans—were rooted out and forcibly removed. We thus find racial antagonism at work. The Indo-Aryan aristocrat was proud of his race and looked down upon these barbarians and mlechchhas. Indo-Aryan States and rulers who were conquered by the Guptas were dealt with leniently. But there was no leniency for the non-Aryans.

  Chandragupta’s son, Samudragupta, was an even more aggressive fighter than his father. He was a great general, and when he became Emperor he carried on victorious campaigns all over the country, and even in the south. He extended the Gupta Empire till it spread over a great part of India. But in the south his suzerainty was nominal. In the north the Kushans were pushed back across the Indus river.

  Samudragupta’s son, Chandragupta II, was also a warrior king, and he conquered Kathiawad and Gujrat, which had been under the rule of a Saka or Turki dynasty for a long time. He took the name of Vikramaditya, and by this he is usually known. But this name, like that of Caesar, became the title of many rulers, and is therefore rather confusing.

  Do you remember seeing an enormous iron pillar near the Qutub Minar in Delhi? This pillar is said to have been built by Vikramaditya as a kind of Victory Pillar. It is a fine piece of work, and on the top is a lotus flower, a symbol of empire.

  The Gupta period was the period of Hindu imperialism in India. There was a great revival of old Aryan culture and Sanskrit learning. The Hellenistic, or Greek, and Mongolian elements in Indian life and culture, which had been brought by the Greeks, Kushans and others, were not encouraged, and were in fact deliberately superseded by laying stress on the Indo-Aryan traditions. Sanskrit was the official Court language. But even in those days Sanskrit was not the common language of the people. The spoken language was a form of Prakrit, which was nearly allied to Sanskrit. But even though Sanskrit was not the vernacular of the time, it was living enough. There was a great flowering of Sanskrit poetry and drama and of Indo-Aryan art. In the history of Sanskrit literature this period is perhaps the richest after the great days which gave the Vedas and the Epics. Kalidasa, that wonderful writer, belonged to this period. Vikramaditya is said to have had a brilliant Court, where he assembled the greatest writers and artists of the day. Have you not heard of the Nine Jewels of his Court—the Navaratna? Kalidasa is said to have been one of these nine.

  Samudragupta changed the capital of his empire from Pataliputra to Ayodhya. Perhaps he felt that Ayodhya offered a more suitable background for his aggressive Indo-Aryan outlook—with its story of Ramachandra immortalized in Valmiki’s epic.

  The Gupta revival of Aryanism and Hinduism was naturally not very favourably inclined towards Buddhism. This was partly because this movement was aristocratic, with the Kshattriya chiefs backing it, and Buddhism had more of democracy in it; partly because the Mahayana form of Buddhism was closely associated with the Kushans and other alien rulers of northern India. But there seems to have been no persecution of Buddhism. Buddhist monasteries continued and were still great educational institutions. The Guptas had friendly relations with the rulers of Ceylon, where Buddhism flourished. Meghavarna, the King of Ceylon, sent costly gifts to Samudragupta and founded a monastery at Gaya for Sinhalese students.

  But Buddhism declined in India. This decline was due, as I have told you previously, not so much to outside pressure on the part of the Brahmans or the Government of the day, as to the power of Hinduism to absorb it gradually.

  It was about this time that one of the famous travellers from China visited India—not Hiuen Tsang, about whom I have told you, but Fa-Hien. He came as a Buddhist in search of Buddhist sacred books. He tells us that the people of Magadha were happy and prosperous; that justice was mildly administered; and that there was no death penalty. Gaya was waste and desolate; Kapilavastu had become a jungle
; but at Pataliputra people were “rich, prosperous and virtuous”. There were many rich and magnificent Buddhist monasteries. Along the main roads there were dharmashalas, where travellers could stay and were supplied with food at public expense. In the great cities there were free hospitals.

  After wandering about India, Fa-Hien went to Ceylon, and spent two years there. But a companion of his, Tao-Ching, liked India greatly, and was so much impressed by the piety of the Buddhist monks that he decided to remain here. Fa-Hien returned by sea from Ceylon to China, and after many adventures and many years’ absence, he reached home.

  Chandragupta the Second, or Vikramaditya, ruled for about twenty-three years. After him came his son, Kumaragupta, who had a long reign of forty years. The next was Skandagupta, who succeeded in 453 AC. He had to face a new terror, which ultimately broke the back of the great Gupta Empire. But of this I shall tell you in my next letter.

  Some of the finest frescoes of Ajanta, as well as the halls and chapel, are examples of Gupta art. When you see them you will realize how wonderful they are. Unfortunately the frescoes are slowly disappearing, as they cannot stand exposure for long.

  What was happening in other parts of the world when the Guptas held sway in India? Chandragupta the First was the contemporary of Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor who founded Constantinople. During the times of the later Guptas, the Roman Empire split up into the Eastern and Western, and the Western was ultimately overthrown by the northern “barbarian” tribes. Thus, just about the time when the Roman Empire was weakening, India had a very powerful State with great generals and mighty armies. Samudragupta is sometimes spoken of as the “Indian Napoleon”, but, ambitious as he was, he did not look beyond the frontiers of India for his conquests.