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Chapter 37: An Introduction to India
Geography
The Indian Subcontinent has been considered to be a world in itself by many. Separated by a mountain wall of the Himalayas from Tibet to its north, the region shaped like a squashed diamond has been seen as distinct from the rest of Asia.
The size of the Indian Subcontinent is huge; comparable to that of the Middle East and Arabia put together, or that of the entirety of the West Roman Empire. However, unlike the aforementioned likely-sized megaregions, India in its entirety is a hospitable environment, with a climate allowing dense population.
It is a land of contrasts, with environments varying from the Thar Desert in the west to the mountainous jungle in the east in the Arakanese Mountains; from the low-lying delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra at the Gulf of Bengal, to the foothills of the Himalayas.
This Subcontinent has relatively clear geographic boundaries. Undisputedly, the snow-capped and ice-capped peaks of the Himalaya range over 8000 meters high make a clear border with the more arid regions in the Tibetan Plateau, which are on leeward side of the mountains; the mountain jungle in the east hinders any meaningful land route to Burma except a narrow coastal corridor. The only direction, to which India is open, is the northwest. Generally it is held, that the geographic borders of the Subcontinent end at the western end of the Indus river basin, although Persian shahs and Alexander the Great would claim the entirety of the Indus basin as theirs.
The arid corridor from the region of Kabulistan and possibly Zabulistan to a certain degree is the only land invasion route to India; this has been the base of Alexander’s campaign in India. The coastal region of Makran can be effectively ignored, for it is a thinly populated tribal area, with a hostile environment, preventing any large-scale military invasion.
Of course, the Konkani and Malabar coasts are open to cultural exchange and trade further westwards across the Sea of Mazoun, to trade with the areas of the Persian Gulf and with Egypt and the Mediterranean, as has been happening since antiquity with Mesopotamia, or more recently with the Romans in the case of the Malabar. The population of the littoral may however sleep in peace, for none of the countries across the sea were powerful and populous enough to launch a maritime invasion of the coast, for India is simply too populous and too large to invade.
The northern half of India is dominated by the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain, an agricultural region with a dense population and the heartland of the Indian civilization. As one continues southwards, it continues uphill into the Deccan plateau in the southern part of the Subcontinent, bordered by the slopes of the Western and Eastern Ghats, which separate the plateau from the coastal areas. The Western Ghats are steeper and higher than the eastern ones; as a result, the entirety of the Deccan plateau is drained by rivers heading east, which cut through the Eastern Ghats.
Languages
From the linguistic point of view, there would have been several linguistic families spread out across the Subcontinent.
The northern half of the Subcontinent would have been dominated by the Indo-Aryan speakers. The Indo-Aryan languages form the easternmost branch of the Indo-European language family, and appear to have entered India via the arid corridor from the regions to the south of the Hindukush.
The earliest known language of the Indo-Aryan stock is Vedic, which would have thrived in the region until around 500 BC. At that point in time, its role as the ceremonial language would be replaced by Sanskrit.
The grammar of Classical Sanskrit was described by an early Indian scholar named Panini, who lived around the fifth century BC. Sanskrit would continue to play a role similar to that of Classical Syria, Koiné and Latin in the Mediterranean, as a classical, liturgical and intellectual language for the Indian Subcontinent for the centuries to come.
In contrast to the Sanskrit (literally “excellent, distinguished speech”) were the Prakrits, which were vernacular varieties, which would have been patronized by kings and nobles, and utilized by poets. The Prakrits would develop in what is labelled as the Middle Aryan period, roughly between 600 Bc and 1000 AD.
Of cultural significance were especially two forms, which would become used as liturgical languages. The Gandhari language, stemming from the region around the Upper Indus Valley, would become a liturgical language for Buddhist canon. Pali or Magadhan Prakrit, developing in the eastern regions of India, would be the tongue of various Hindu hymns, as well as used by Theravada Buddhists. Ardhamagadhi spoken in the region of Uttar Pradesh would be used by the Jains in their religious literature
As time would go on, the dialects would diverge even further from the Sanskrit and Prakrit forms into the so-called apabhrámsa, meaning corrupt, or incorrect language. Notable was especially the variety spoken in the east, called Abahatta or Magadhi, which would be spoken in the regions of Bengal and Assam and roundabout.
The second most widely distributed language family was the Dravidian one. Dravidian languages are spoken in southern India, mainly to the Deccan plateau. The most prominent of these languages would have been Tamil, now in the phase called “Middle Tamil” by linguists. Other written Dravidian languages would include Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam, which had already diverged significantly from Tamil for some three centuries.
The autochthonous hunter-gatherer populations of India would have spoken languages of the Austroasiatic stock. This language family is also distributed in Southeast Asia, especially by the Mon and Khmer languages. Most of its speakers were assimilated into either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian populations; yet pockets of speakers of the Munda branch have persisted in places like the Gondwana region or the Santali region on the borders between Bengal and Bihar. Belonging to another branch of Austroasiatic languages are the Khasi people of Meghalayana of northeast India
The foothills of the Himalayas have been inhabited by speakers of the Sino-Tibetan languages, living in places live Bhutan, or Arunachal Pradesh.
Religions
The native religious traditions of the Subcontinent are referred to as the Indian religions. While having considerable influences on one another, one can distinguish two, or rather let´s say three different traditions of religious thought
The first tradition stemmed from the original Indo-European religion of the invading Indo-Aryans. This early form is known as the Vedic religion, or Vedic Brahmanism. The word Brahman itself is the Hindu concept of the absolute. These two terms are sometimes distinguished, with Vedism denoting the pre-contact and Brahmanism to the post contact phase of the religion with the Indus Valley civilization.
The early Brahmanism would evolve into Hinduism and Vedanta a rather philosophical tradition speculating on the implicatives of the Upanishads, which were a set of speculative and philosophical texts.
Contact with the movements within the shramanic tradition, as well as interaction with foreign invaders would result in the rise of a number of schools within the Vedantic philosophy, most notably: Yoga, Dvaita, Advait ,and Bhakti.
The Bhakti movement was based around a resurgence of the worship of traditional gods, regardless of the social status of the believer involved. The movements were mostly centered on the incarnations of Vishnu and Shiva.
Thus by this time, Hinduism was divided into four major branches: Shaivism (around Shiva), Vaishnavism(around Vishnu), Bhakti and the rather esoteric tradition of Tantrism.
The second tradition is called the śramana, meaning ascetic. The most prominent religious traditions stemming from the Shramana tradition are Jainism and Buddhism. The lesser known Shramana traditions include Ajivika, Ajnana and Charvaka. The proponents of the shramana movement were wandering ascetics, challenging the practise of rituals of orthodox Vedic religion.
Concept found within all of the Shramana traditions are Samsara (cycle of life and death, that is, reincarnation), moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnation
There have been six major Shramanic movements preceding that of Buddhism:
1. Purana Kassapa taught amoralism, climing there is no such thing as a good or bad deed.
2. Makkhali Gosala founded the Ajivika movement. This showed a fatalistic philosophy denying the concept of free will. However, they believed in a soul
3. Ajita Kesakambali founded the Charvaka school, being a pure materialist.
4. Pakudha Kaccayana was a proponent of atomism in Indian philosophy, and thought that there are seven basic elements in the universe.
5. Mahavira was the founder of Jainism. Jainism taught five moral principles: ahimsa(non-violence), satya(truthfulness), asteya(non-stealing) and aparigarha(non-attachment)
6. Sanjaya Bellathiputta was founder of the Ajňana movement, believing in absolute agnosticism
Ultimately, there remained the religious traditions older than the Vedic or Shramanic thought: the traditions of the indigenous peoples, which manifested themselves as Sarnaism among the Austroasiatic peoples, Donyipolo and Sanamism in the regions of arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, respectively.
Caste System
To understand the notion of caste system is the very basic in understanding the society in India. The social stratification in India resulted in the creation of a rather rigid system, composed of four major castes or classes in the society. The original term denoting the notion of caste in India is varna. Unlike feudal Europe, which would have considered three estates, the Indian varna system had four, as well as effectively a fifth caste composed of people who were outside the system.
The topmost caste were the Brahmins or the priestly caste; the Kshatriyas would be something like the nobility, the rulers, the state administration and the warriors, then you would have a caste of people involved in economic activity, that is traders, artisans, merchants and farmers, who would have been called the Vaishyas, and ultimately you would have a worker caste called the shudras.
Not all people were, however, part of the caste system. The people outside of the caste system (avarna) were either tribal indigenous groups, or Dalits, known as untouchables.
One would be born into a caste, and that would define very much the profession he was able to do, the quarter where one could live in and the scope of people whom one could marry. Normally, the upper castes would not come into contact with the lower ones.
The Indian Subcontinent has been considered to be a world in itself by many. Separated by a mountain wall of the Himalayas from Tibet to its north, the region shaped like a squashed diamond has been seen as distinct from the rest of Asia.
The size of the Indian Subcontinent is huge; comparable to that of the Middle East and Arabia put together, or that of the entirety of the West Roman Empire. However, unlike the aforementioned likely-sized megaregions, India in its entirety is a hospitable environment, with a climate allowing dense population.
It is a land of contrasts, with environments varying from the Thar Desert in the west to the mountainous jungle in the east in the Arakanese Mountains; from the low-lying delta of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra at the Gulf of Bengal, to the foothills of the Himalayas.
This Subcontinent has relatively clear geographic boundaries. Undisputedly, the snow-capped and ice-capped peaks of the Himalaya range over 8000 meters high make a clear border with the more arid regions in the Tibetan Plateau, which are on leeward side of the mountains; the mountain jungle in the east hinders any meaningful land route to Burma except a narrow coastal corridor. The only direction, to which India is open, is the northwest. Generally it is held, that the geographic borders of the Subcontinent end at the western end of the Indus river basin, although Persian shahs and Alexander the Great would claim the entirety of the Indus basin as theirs.
The arid corridor from the region of Kabulistan and possibly Zabulistan to a certain degree is the only land invasion route to India; this has been the base of Alexander’s campaign in India. The coastal region of Makran can be effectively ignored, for it is a thinly populated tribal area, with a hostile environment, preventing any large-scale military invasion.
Of course, the Konkani and Malabar coasts are open to cultural exchange and trade further westwards across the Sea of Mazoun, to trade with the areas of the Persian Gulf and with Egypt and the Mediterranean, as has been happening since antiquity with Mesopotamia, or more recently with the Romans in the case of the Malabar. The population of the littoral may however sleep in peace, for none of the countries across the sea were powerful and populous enough to launch a maritime invasion of the coast, for India is simply too populous and too large to invade.
The northern half of India is dominated by the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain, an agricultural region with a dense population and the heartland of the Indian civilization. As one continues southwards, it continues uphill into the Deccan plateau in the southern part of the Subcontinent, bordered by the slopes of the Western and Eastern Ghats, which separate the plateau from the coastal areas. The Western Ghats are steeper and higher than the eastern ones; as a result, the entirety of the Deccan plateau is drained by rivers heading east, which cut through the Eastern Ghats.
Languages
From the linguistic point of view, there would have been several linguistic families spread out across the Subcontinent.
The northern half of the Subcontinent would have been dominated by the Indo-Aryan speakers. The Indo-Aryan languages form the easternmost branch of the Indo-European language family, and appear to have entered India via the arid corridor from the regions to the south of the Hindukush.
The earliest known language of the Indo-Aryan stock is Vedic, which would have thrived in the region until around 500 BC. At that point in time, its role as the ceremonial language would be replaced by Sanskrit.
The grammar of Classical Sanskrit was described by an early Indian scholar named Panini, who lived around the fifth century BC. Sanskrit would continue to play a role similar to that of Classical Syria, Koiné and Latin in the Mediterranean, as a classical, liturgical and intellectual language for the Indian Subcontinent for the centuries to come.
In contrast to the Sanskrit (literally “excellent, distinguished speech”) were the Prakrits, which were vernacular varieties, which would have been patronized by kings and nobles, and utilized by poets. The Prakrits would develop in what is labelled as the Middle Aryan period, roughly between 600 Bc and 1000 AD.
Of cultural significance were especially two forms, which would become used as liturgical languages. The Gandhari language, stemming from the region around the Upper Indus Valley, would become a liturgical language for Buddhist canon. Pali or Magadhan Prakrit, developing in the eastern regions of India, would be the tongue of various Hindu hymns, as well as used by Theravada Buddhists. Ardhamagadhi spoken in the region of Uttar Pradesh would be used by the Jains in their religious literature
As time would go on, the dialects would diverge even further from the Sanskrit and Prakrit forms into the so-called apabhrámsa, meaning corrupt, or incorrect language. Notable was especially the variety spoken in the east, called Abahatta or Magadhi, which would be spoken in the regions of Bengal and Assam and roundabout.
The second most widely distributed language family was the Dravidian one. Dravidian languages are spoken in southern India, mainly to the Deccan plateau. The most prominent of these languages would have been Tamil, now in the phase called “Middle Tamil” by linguists. Other written Dravidian languages would include Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam, which had already diverged significantly from Tamil for some three centuries.
The autochthonous hunter-gatherer populations of India would have spoken languages of the Austroasiatic stock. This language family is also distributed in Southeast Asia, especially by the Mon and Khmer languages. Most of its speakers were assimilated into either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian populations; yet pockets of speakers of the Munda branch have persisted in places like the Gondwana region or the Santali region on the borders between Bengal and Bihar. Belonging to another branch of Austroasiatic languages are the Khasi people of Meghalayana of northeast India
The foothills of the Himalayas have been inhabited by speakers of the Sino-Tibetan languages, living in places live Bhutan, or Arunachal Pradesh.
Religions
The native religious traditions of the Subcontinent are referred to as the Indian religions. While having considerable influences on one another, one can distinguish two, or rather let´s say three different traditions of religious thought
The first tradition stemmed from the original Indo-European religion of the invading Indo-Aryans. This early form is known as the Vedic religion, or Vedic Brahmanism. The word Brahman itself is the Hindu concept of the absolute. These two terms are sometimes distinguished, with Vedism denoting the pre-contact and Brahmanism to the post contact phase of the religion with the Indus Valley civilization.
The early Brahmanism would evolve into Hinduism and Vedanta a rather philosophical tradition speculating on the implicatives of the Upanishads, which were a set of speculative and philosophical texts.
Contact with the movements within the shramanic tradition, as well as interaction with foreign invaders would result in the rise of a number of schools within the Vedantic philosophy, most notably: Yoga, Dvaita, Advait ,and Bhakti.
The Bhakti movement was based around a resurgence of the worship of traditional gods, regardless of the social status of the believer involved. The movements were mostly centered on the incarnations of Vishnu and Shiva.
Thus by this time, Hinduism was divided into four major branches: Shaivism (around Shiva), Vaishnavism(around Vishnu), Bhakti and the rather esoteric tradition of Tantrism.
The second tradition is called the śramana, meaning ascetic. The most prominent religious traditions stemming from the Shramana tradition are Jainism and Buddhism. The lesser known Shramana traditions include Ajivika, Ajnana and Charvaka. The proponents of the shramana movement were wandering ascetics, challenging the practise of rituals of orthodox Vedic religion.
Concept found within all of the Shramana traditions are Samsara (cycle of life and death, that is, reincarnation), moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnation
There have been six major Shramanic movements preceding that of Buddhism:
1. Purana Kassapa taught amoralism, climing there is no such thing as a good or bad deed.
2. Makkhali Gosala founded the Ajivika movement. This showed a fatalistic philosophy denying the concept of free will. However, they believed in a soul
3. Ajita Kesakambali founded the Charvaka school, being a pure materialist.
4. Pakudha Kaccayana was a proponent of atomism in Indian philosophy, and thought that there are seven basic elements in the universe.
5. Mahavira was the founder of Jainism. Jainism taught five moral principles: ahimsa(non-violence), satya(truthfulness), asteya(non-stealing) and aparigarha(non-attachment)
6. Sanjaya Bellathiputta was founder of the Ajňana movement, believing in absolute agnosticism
Ultimately, there remained the religious traditions older than the Vedic or Shramanic thought: the traditions of the indigenous peoples, which manifested themselves as Sarnaism among the Austroasiatic peoples, Donyipolo and Sanamism in the regions of arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, respectively.
Caste System
To understand the notion of caste system is the very basic in understanding the society in India. The social stratification in India resulted in the creation of a rather rigid system, composed of four major castes or classes in the society. The original term denoting the notion of caste in India is varna. Unlike feudal Europe, which would have considered three estates, the Indian varna system had four, as well as effectively a fifth caste composed of people who were outside the system.
The topmost caste were the Brahmins or the priestly caste; the Kshatriyas would be something like the nobility, the rulers, the state administration and the warriors, then you would have a caste of people involved in economic activity, that is traders, artisans, merchants and farmers, who would have been called the Vaishyas, and ultimately you would have a worker caste called the shudras.
Not all people were, however, part of the caste system. The people outside of the caste system (avarna) were either tribal indigenous groups, or Dalits, known as untouchables.
One would be born into a caste, and that would define very much the profession he was able to do, the quarter where one could live in and the scope of people whom one could marry. Normally, the upper castes would not come into contact with the lower ones.
- Tomislav Addai
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