Hellenisation and opening up of the Silk Trade

Death of Alexander might have brought an end of his dreams of establishing a worldwide Greek Empire, but it could said that his desire was accomplished by the spread of Greek culture and philosophy from the West to the East, with the ideas, themes and symbols from ancient Greece being introduced to the east, the regions in between serving as the connecting bridge between the two.

Greek language became the lingua franca of the Roman world by in the first century AD. It would be recalled that the whole of New Testament, including Paul’s letters, was written in Greek. Greek language can be heard all over Central Asia and even in the Indus valley. It was in vogue in Asia, for more than a century after the death of Alexander. Maxims from Delphi, the oracle of Apollo in Delphi, Greece were found carved on a monument in Ai Khanoum in northern Afghanistan, a city founded by Seleucus. Tax receipts and documents regarding the soldiers’ pay from Bactria around 200 BC were written down in Greek.  

Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, who ruled in 268 BC, propagated his Buddhist tenets through his edicts, which are found in the north west of Indian subcontinent, had parallel Greek translations for the benefit of the local population. Buddha statues started to appear around the time when the cult of Apollo started to be established in Gandhara valley and western India. Buddhism till then had no visual representation of Buddha.

In southern Tajikistan images of Apollo and miniature ivories depicting Alexander have been found. Homer and tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides were studied and taught in Persia and Asia. It may not be far fetched to say that Indian epic poem Ramayana was influenced by Iliad and Odyssey, epics of Ancient Greece, where the elopement of Helen with Paris of Troy triggered the Trojan War. In Ramayana abduction of Sita by Ravana triggered the war! Mahabharata, another epic of Indian subcontinent is said to have influenced Aeneid, a Latin epic poem written by Virgil in 29-29 BC. The cultural influence thus flew from both the sides enriching each other.

China was rising in the east, pushing its frontiers to include the northern steppes, during their dynasty of Hans, 206 BC – 220 AD. Their territories extended up to Hindu Kush. There was a vibrant trade up to tens of thousands of head of cattle head, which the Chinese bought from the steppe tribes, including Scythian in Central Asia. Chinese required horses to keep vigilance over their territory and tribal chieftains of the region of Xinjiang made a fortune selling horses to them. The Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, who died in 210 BC was buried with 80 of his favored steeds, along with some 8000 terracotta soldiers, recently excavated in Xi’an.

The feared tribes of the steppes of Mongolia, Xiongnu, were kept in good humor by the Chinese Emperors, through a formal system of tribute of rice, wine and textiles, mainly silk. Chinese silk soon became the symbol of political and social power among the rulers of the steppe and elsewhere. In 1 BC, Xiongnu were given 30,000 rolls of silk as peace offering! China tried to deal with these tribes once and for all, by pushing them up to Pamir mountains and beyond where lay a new world. China had opened a door leading to a trans-continental network for trade. The Silk Roads were born.

China sent explorers to find out about the culture and economics of the countries of Indus valley, Persia and Central Asia. The nomads displaced by the Chinese had descended on the Central Asia, they observed. Military strength of these countries was poor, but trade flourished in the capital Bactra. Trade between China and these regions soon started to develop, but slowly. They had to navigate treacherous places like Gobi desert, Taklmakan desert, passes of Pamirs and other mountains. The route was dangerous and deadly. To weather the sand storms in the region, Bactrian camels were found to be useful.

In spite of the dangers of the route and death of animals and traders, luxury items like silk started to flow along these routes. Under Hans dynasty silk was used to pay troops along with coins and grain. Bolts of raw silk were regularly used as currency. Very soon silk became international currency and also a much sought after luxury product.

Chinese controlled the traders who were entering their territory and leaving, by maintaining exhaustive records on bamboo and wooden tablets. Visitors had to stick to designated routes, issued with written passes and were regularly counted by Chinese officials to ensure all those entered the country went back! Sounds a bit like communist regime, isn’t it? But the thing to note is globalization is not a modern phenomena, it was there in the world even in 2^nd Century BC!

By the 1^st century AD Rome, established in the shores of Italy, came to dominate Mediterranean and their demands stirred up the flow of luxury items from the east. With a highly disciplined and trained army, Rome soon took up the reigns as a world power. Conquest of Gaul in the now central Europe brought gold into Roman Empire. But the real profits for Roman Empire came from its conquest of Eastern Mediterranean and the regions beyond.

Egypt under Ptolemy was fabulously rich and Alexandria had become a great city of wealth. Food grains left its shores by ships for distant lands and brought in wealth. This rich Egypt was conquered by Octavius in 30 BC and on return he was bestowed with the title Augustus by the Senate and Rome itself had became an empire.  

As the wealth of the rich Nile river poured into Rome, its economy got transformed. Rome ruthlessly expropriated Egypt’s tax revenue and its economic resources, a repeat performance by the British Empire in India, many centuries later. A new poll tax was introduced, which was payable by every male member of the age between 16 and 60, who were registered in a census. This census was for taxation purposes.

The sucking of the resources was extended to Judaea too, and births and deaths were recorded, to increase the revenue by taxing each male member of the society. In one such process Jesus’ parents traveled to Bethlehem to be enumerated in a census ordered by Quirinius, who was the Governor of Syria.

The east, especially Asia was seen as a rich and fabulous place with reputation for lazy luxury and fine living. In 1 BC, Augustus ordered a detailed survey of both sides of Persian Gulf and the trade in the region along the sea routes. He also investigated the land routes leading deep into Central Asia through Persia. His officers recorded the important locations from the Euphrates up to modern Kandahar in Afghanistan in the east. Trade exploded with India, but some Romans would moan that the Asian decadence destroyed the old fashioned Roman virtues.

Ports in western and eastern coasts of India served as the market place for goods brought from all over eastern and south-eastern Asia, shipped to the Rome. Similarly Kushan Empire established in the north western India became so rich by serving as the market place for the goods secured from all over India, Central Asia and China, and trading it with the Romans.

 Chinese silk was increasingly available in Mediterranean and the wealthy resorted to using it as their attire. Pliny the Elder would complain that the Roman coffers were being emptied in this effort to adorn the rich women of Rome. He indicated that 100 million sesterces per year were pumped out of the Roman economy to provide for such luxuries, which amounted to 10% of the annual budget of the Roman Empire.

No wonder Rome wanted to extend its empire to India and beyond to China. The country of Persia lay in its way, so the Roman emperors waged war against Persia time and again, sometimes to win and other times to lose.

More of this in the next blog; hope you are enjoying what you are reading.

Along the Silk Roads!

For millennium trade routes flourished between the countries of the East and the West. Along these trade routes happened the exchange of ideas, inflow of cultural influences, spread of religious ideas and philosophy, from one side to the other. No wonder Kings and Queens and the political leaderships set on conquering these nations and countries, which they presumed to be fabulously rich and resourceful, so that the riches will flow into their kingdoms and make them powerful.

It was delightful to read “The Silk Roads,” by Peter Frankopan, subtitled “A New History of the World.’[1] It is totally a new way of looking into history, not from the view points of conquerors and kingdoms, but the trade routes and economic activities of nations across the world, from Mediterranean to Hindu Kush and beyond up to China, a history of mankind for more than 5000 years. Many interesting facts get thrown on as one read the book.

The countries that lie between the east and the west are most important as the connecting bridge between the two sides of the world. God created Garden of Eden in the rich soil between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, so says the Bible. Ancient civilization of Sumeria flourished in and around Mesopotamia, and the area named Fertile Crescent, from these rivers in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. From here we get the first recorded code of laws by Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 4000 years ago.  

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro civilizations in the Indus valley were of renown, all existing some 5000 years ago. Other great centers of civilizations rose in Babylon, Nineveh, Ur, Akkad in Mesopotamia, almost all of them mentioned in the Biblical narrative in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

Persians became prominent in the area around 6^th century BC, from Southern Iran, and reached up to Egypt, conquering the lands in between. Their forays into Ancient Greece were stopped in the battles at Marathon and Salami by the brave Spartans and Athenians in 490-470 BC. Persian kingdom extended up to Hindu Kush and north-west India. It connected the Mediterranean with the heart of Asia.

A highly educated bureaucracy maintained meticulous records of all the payments made, quality and quantity of goods brought in and sold in the markets, maintenance of roads in the Empire and so on. Tolerance of minorities was legendary by the Persian rulers. Cyrus, the Mede was the Emperor, who allowed the exiled Jews to return to their country in Palestine to rebuild their temple in 539 BC.

Trade flourished in ancient Persia and spectacular buildings arose in Babylon, Persepolis, Pasargadae and Susa, where King Darius built a magnificent palace, with ebony and silver imported from Egypt, cedar from Lebanon, gold from Bactria, Lapis and cinnabar from Sogdiana, turquoise from Khwarezm and ivory from India.

Cyrus the Great of the Persian Empire in 6^th century BC, was killed trying to subjugate the ferocious nomads, Scythian from the northern steppes, extending from Black Sea through Central Asia to Mongolia. It is said that his head was carried around in a skin, filled with blood and they drank from it. Still it would take a few more centuries before Persians could be completely conquered.

Greece had its own civilization starting from Minoan civilization originating in Crete and then Mycenaean civilization in the mainland Greece. By the 6^th century BC, Athens was experimenting with the formation of democracy, giving voting power to all males of eighteen years and more, both rich and the poor, in running the affairs of their city-state. Of course women were excluded, but they were the queens in their homes, like elsewhere in ancient civilizations.

 From the northern Greece arose a typhoon, Alexander the Great from Macedon, who became the ruler in 336 BC. He turned his gaze towards Asia and not Europe, for the then Europe had no cities, no culture, no prestige and no profit. His heart was to win the East, including Persia. He crushed the Persians army under the command of Darius III, in a decisive battle in Gaugamela, a place near the modern town of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, in 331 BC.

City after city surrendered to Alexander’s command. The wealth of the Empire and the beautiful palaces of Persia and Babylon became his. He allowed the local people to continue in their ways, especially religious manners, showing tolerance and respect. He restored the desecrated tomb of Cyrus the Great and gave a decent burial to Darius III, whose body had been dumped in a wagon. He also relied on the local elite to rule the conquered places as his representatives. 

Alexander also founded cities bearing his name, in Herat, Kandahar and Bagram, with fortifications. These became his rallying points for further conquest and push towards the east. He pushed relentlessly across Asia, up to Hindu Kush and Indus valley in northwest India. On mutiny of his own battle-tired soldiers, who refused to go any further, Alexander returned to Babylon, only to die in 323 BC.

In thirteen years Alexander had conquered the then known world and established a permanent like between the west and the east, which will flourish henceforth. Culture, philosophy and language of Greece were carried through to all these places, and influenced those in Persia, India, Central Asia and eventually China too. The cultures and ideas of the places he conquered influence Greece and its culture and thinking too. It was the start of a cultural exchange, or Hellenization, which will last for a long time to come.

The Empire of Alexander was in turmoil after his death, but four enclaves emerged soon under his generals. Seleucus took charge of the lands from Tigris River to Indus River, consisting of today’s Syria, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, and India. Seleucid dynasty founded by him will rule for the next three centuries. Egypt went to Ptolemy, along with Palestine, Cilicia, Petra and Cyprus. Cassander took over Macedonia and Greece. Lysimachus ruled Thrace, Asia Minor, including parts of modern Turkey, Phrygia, Lydia and Ionia.   

It is interesting to note that Daniel in the Bible mentions that he saw in a vision,[2] a Ram with two horns standing by the river Ulai in Shushan, the capital, the horns being the Kingdoms of Media and Persia. Then he goes on to say that he saw a shaggy goat arise and attack the ram and break his horns. This is the Greek (Macedonian) King Alexander, who conquered Persia. Then he goes on to say that he saw its large horn was broken and four kingdoms will come in its place. These are the four kingdoms that arose after Alexander’s death, as divided among his four generals.

Amazing, isn’t it? That Daniel, an Israelite taken as captive by the Babylonians in 605 BC should leave accounts of history that would happen three centuries later on the plains of Mesopotamia!

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[1] Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Bloomsbury, London, 2016

[2] Daniel 8:3, 5, 20-22. Interpretation is given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel.

Hannibal, the Carthaginian General

What an inspiring life Hannibal led! He marched his army over the Alps Mountains in winter and defeated the Romans on the other side of the mountain, a formidable task! Hannibal’s Alpine crossing had fired the imagination of many a warrior, especially Wellington, the 19^th century British Commander and Napoleon, the First Emperor of France.    

Hannibal Barca was born to Hamilcar, a Carthaginian general, in 247 BC in Carthage, Tunisia, in North Africa. His father took Hannibal at a very young age of nine years to Spain, along with his brother, to rough it up in the war fronts. Carthage had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Rome in the First Punic War of 264-241 BC. Hamilcar had made his two boys, swear an oath never to show goodwill to the Romans, an oath of eternal enmity.

As Hamilcar sank to his death in a river during the battle with an Iberian tribe in 229 BC, both the sons witnessed it and fled for their lives. Hannibal was 18 years old then. The leadership of Carthaginian forces passed on to his elder brother Hasdrubal, who negotiated a peace treaty with Rome. When he was assassinated in Spain, Hannibal at the age of 26 was elected general by popular vote of the Carthaginian troops in Spain, ratified by the Senate in Carthage.

Within three years Hannibal tore up the treaty that his brother had worked so assiduously with Romans and laid siege to the Roman town Saguntum, south of the Ebro River in Spain. From there he marched across Pyrenees mountains and then Alps to swoop down on Italy. Basically the fight was to determine who will be the masters of the Mediterranean waters and the surrounding lands.

Hannibal led his forces atop Alps, in the summer of 218 BC. His was the first ever troops to cross the Alps with an army, since the Greek hero Heracles (Hercules), who according to traditions was the first to force a route through Alps. Hannibal was supposed to have started with 90,000 infantry, 12000 cavalry and 37 African elephants. He and his troupes started to climb Alps early November at the very onset of winter. By the time he crossed over he was left with only 50,000 infantry and 9000 cavalry but all the 37 elephants.

Hannibal’s army tried to cross over Alps through one of the 6 narrow passes, with the rugged and steep mountain peaks rising before them and bitter cold winds howling through the narrow passes, with bone-chilling effects. With the stirring speeches of Hannibal and grit, and the reward of reaching the fertile plain of Po valley down on the side of northern Italy on crossing the mountain, the troops made the journey in an amazing 9 days.

The bewildered animals, horses and elephants and the pack animals slipped over the snow and skidded to their death. On reaching Po valley, Hannibal did not give them rest for too long. He pushed them to move on, as the snow fall was heavy and if immobile, they might freeze to death.

As the passage was too narrow for the pack animals and soldiers to move, men worked hard building a path along the cliff side, packing the path with any material that was available. In a single day they created a path wide enough for horses and pack animals to pass and descend.

Then came the elephants, which were stuck in the snow. The path had to be widened and made strong enough for the elephants to cross. Men worked tirelessly around the animals for three days and created a path good enough for them to cross. They reached Turin, exhausted and frost-bitten and malnourished, and despondent. They had lost 70,000 infantry, half the cavalry and many elephants. War was yet to begin.  

Romans were in panic on hearing that Hannibal with his army had crossed over the Alps Mountain within 15 days in mid-November winter and landed in Italy in 218 BC. Hannibal fought many battles in Italy: battle of Ticinus in November, 218; battle at Trebbia in December 218; in June 217 at the battle of Trasimene and the battle of Cannae in August 216, and won all of them, in spite of all odds.

His army was emaciated and depleted, but he held the element of surprise. His huge war elephants from Africa were enough to strike terror into the hearts of Roman soldiers. His strategy was superb; he had uncanny ability to place his troops in the position most appropriate to their fighting skill. Had Hannibal pushed straight for Rome, he could have captured it, but he knew his limits, so never went against Rome itself.

Romans were so scarred of Hannibal’s advance; they quickly sacrificed a Gallic man and woman and a Greek man and woman, burying them alive in dual sacrifice to get the goodwill of their gods! But Hannibal and his army were was not in good shape. His compatriots back home in Carthage were refusing to send in additional reinforcements. He is said to have stripped the dead Romans of their rings and sent these home to be poured out before the Senate, who impressed by this gesture, agreed to send in more men and elephants.

Hannibal sent in ambassadors to Rome to force them to come to the negotiating table. Romans refused and persisted in fighting Hannibal to finish. Hannibal’s men were tired with the perpetual war and needed to return, may be just like Alexander’s army that revolted on the banks of Indus River in 327 BC. In 215 BC, when Romans faced them once again in Cumae, Hannibal suffered his first ever defeat in Italy.

Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio had reached the den of the lion by landing Roman troops in Spain itself and Hannibal had to divert men and material to defend his home base. In 205 BC, Hannibal in his forties was war weary and steadily losing, losing Spain and other allies to Romans. Roman army was progressing towards Carthage. The Senate hurriedly agreed to all the terms dictated by Romans to negotiate peace. Hannibal was asked to return to Carthage and fight the Romans, which he did.

In the last fight in 202 BC, Hannibal and Scipio met and fought at Zama, near Carthage. Hannibal’s army lost. Thousands of Carthaginians died, many thousands were taken prisoners; some managed to escape, including Hannibal. He rode 120 miles over two days at full gallop and evaded his pursuers. He returned to Carthage, but on learning that Romans had asked for him as a hostage and the willingness of Carthaginians to give him up, he escaped again and reached Tyre, the ancestral home of Carthaginians, where he was welcomed as a hero. 

Rome emerged victorious and as undisputed masters of central and western Mediterranean and surrounding coastlines. Hannibal continued his tirades against Rome, by first serving as adviser to Antiochus III of Seleucid Empire, and goading him to go against Rome. In 191 BC, Antiochus lost the battle at Thermopylae, Greece, where 300 Spartans had resisted the Persians in 480 BC.

Hannibal fled once again from the Romans, this time to the royal court of King Prusias of Bithynia, a small kingdom on the shores of Black Sea. He aided in the king’s campaigns against king of Pergamon, a long time ally of Rome. In 182 BC the Romans persuaded King Prusias to hand over Hannibal to them. Hannibal aged 63, not wanting to end up a Roman prisoner and having lost all his options, took his life by drinking poison.

Thus ended the magnificent story of Hannibal, an all time great military general world had produced, who succeeded in holding Romans in anxiety and fear for a long time. Hannibal was an enigma; there are no written records left by him. All the accounts we have of him were written by his enemies, Livy the Roman historian and Polybus, the Greek historian.

Even his enemies admired his ability to survive hardship, deprivation and uncertainty. He was most formidable under extreme pressure. He not only performed, but goaded his men to perform difficult feats of endurance and bravery. He was a brilliant strategist and fearsome to his enemies.

A great general, nevertheless he lost to the Romans, whom he had vowed to hate till the end. Rome was left as the Queen of Mediterranean with no one to challenge her once Hannibal left the stage.    

Pots of Gold in the Backyard!

Really, no joke! There was a time when gold coins minted in Rome were hoarded in South India. There was an active and prosperous trade going on with the Romans as early as 2^nd century BC and through to the 2^nd century AD. The Roman conquest of Egypt linked Alexandria, the famous port in Egypt to Rome and via Arabian Sea to the South Indian ports in the Indian peninsula.

Yavana traders, as the Indians called the Greek traders, had become active in South India. Arabs by the end of mid-first century AD had learned to use the monsoon winds to travel speedily across the mid-ocean rather than winding up the coasts.

Ships sailing from the southern end of Red Sea would wait for the South West Monsoon to pass its peak before they set sail for India, using the now less ferocious wind. The returning North East Monsoon from across India in the winter would bring these ships back. The seamen and traders from Egypt had to stay a short while in Indian coastal cities to wait for the favorable monsoon winds. Thus there sprang colonies of Yavanas in Indian coastal area.

Shipping was brisk and South Indians took up long distance voyagers to Red sea or South East Asia for trade. Pliny, the Roman author and naturalist, a naval and army commander of early Roman Empire, who lived in the first century AD, says that Indian ships were of 75 tons and some could even hold up to 700 passengers.

Indian traders sailed to South East Asia to obtain spices which were not readily available in India and traded it with the Roman traders. They sailed by sea to Java, Sumatra and Bali, earning immense profits as they resold these to the Alexandrian merchants in India. They went even to Myanmar and Cambodia.

An Indian Brahmin, Kaundinya, was said to have married a Cambodian princess and introduced Indian culture, especially Hinduism in Cambodia. Angkor Wat stands a testimony to this cultural exchange. For almost 5 centuries, starting from 5^th century to 15^th century AD, majority of Cambodian population were Hindus, until they were gradually converted into Buddhism after the decay and demise of the Indian kingdoms there.

It was a global trade even during 1^st Century AD. Unfortunately gradually Arab traders took over the Western coast commercial maritime initiative and replaced Indian traders as intermediaries. Indian traders became the suppliers and no more the carriers of goods to countries westward.  

Indian vessels brought rice, wheat, and textiles to Socotra in the Arabian Sea, now a part of Yemen. The imports to India were pearls, dyes, wine, dates, gold and specially trained slaves. Roman traders purchased spices from Indian traders, especially pepper, which was used in preservation and in medicine by the Roman world. Such spices were exchanged for Roman gold and silver coins, coral and wine.

Semi-precious stones, particularly beryl, jewels, textiles, pearls, sandalwood, ebony and teak were also exported from India. To amuse the rich patrons in Rome, they imported from India ivory and animals like apes, parrots and peacocks, in addition to textiles, jewels and spices.

Important ports on the eastern coast of India were Poompuhar or Kaveripattinam, Arikamedu and others. A Greek maritime geography of the 1^st Century AD, called Periplus, lists out a compendium of ports and routes along Red Sea and the Indian coast. Kodangallur or Cranganore near Kochi on the western coast of India was linked to the trade in pepper, spices and beryl. Rich pepper trade with Malabar Coast continued for centuries until the time of Portuguese.

There was a settlement of Yavanas in Arikmedu, in south east India from 1^st century BC. It seems textiles were manufactured locally, but to the specification of the Romans and shipped west to eventually reach Rome. What is it except outsourcing, as our textile factories and tailoring units are doing today in the 21^st century!

Roman merchants who traded in India were not necessarily Romans from Rome, but consisted of Egyptians Jews, Greeks from Alexandria and Eastern Mediterranean and also some from North Africa, from all parts of Roman Empire.  

Wine, Olive oil and fish sauce had come from the southern Italy and Greek islands for the use of the Yavana traders, who had settled in South India. Korkai, Alangankulam, Kodumanal, all had such contacts with the Romans. Pot shreds with the names of Indians inscribed on them, some in Tamil Brahmi and some in Prakrit languages have been recently excavated in the ports on the Red Sea, providing evidence of Indian’s extended seafaring activity to distance shores in search of profits in trade.

Most importantly, hoards of Roman imperial coins have been unearthed in some Buddhist sites in Deccan and deep in south India. These coins were of earlier Roman Emperors like Augustus and Tiberius. The debased coins of Nero were not thought worthy of hoarding. Excavations have also shown attempts by Indian rulers to imitate the portraits of Roman coins with substandard portraits of the local rulers.

Roman historian Pliny complained that the trade with the east was causing a serious drain on the income of Rome, to the extent of 550 million sesterces, every year, of which at least one fifth went to India. (Sesterce, a large brass coin of early Rome, has been calculated to be equivalent to $1.55 in 2015). Balance of trade seems to be very much in favor of India. Roman currency denarius was freely in circulation in South India.

Roman gold and silver coins have been found in South India, literally in hoards; even recently such pots full of Roman gold coins have been accidentally unearthed in people’s backyards, while digging for construction of a house or a well. What a find! Of course one has to unfortunately surrender such treasures to the government! These coins were used largely as bullion or as high values currency, leading it to be hoarded; it might have been used as an item of gift-exchange among the local chiefs or as potential capital for further exchange.

With all the brisk trade and pots full of Roman gold and silver coins made by the Indian traders, hardly any written account has been left by the Indians on the places they visited or traded with. Whereas Marco Polo, who visited India in 1288 and 1293, during Pandyan kingdom, has left such elaborate account of India, its rulers, people, their customs, etc. No such account by Indians is forthcoming. Why so?

May be Indians were so full of their own greatness, and arrogance that they are the best in the world, prevented them from taking an active interest in the countries around them! When they are the best, then where is the need to learn from the others! Within their own country, as Marco Polo observed, Indians will not pass on their knowledge to the others belonging to other castes, let alone to the foreigners. No exchange of knowledge took place. 

Well, at least they had hoarded pots of gold and silver coins, which we still keep surfacing! Wish the people who do unearth such hoards are lucky enough to keep it and not surrender it to the government. Ahh, how sad, we live in democratic republic! All exotic things belong to the government. Very unfair, of course.

First Experiment in Imperial Government in India

The first Empire in India, extending from Sind River to Ganges was established by the Mauryans. Chandragupta Maurya managed to win his Empire from the remnants of Nanda kingdom in 321 BC and established his throne securely in the Gangetic plain first. Gradually he turned his attention to north-west of India, where Seleucid kings were ruling.

In a fight against the Greek Seleucus Nicator in 305 BC, Chandragupta Maurya seemed to have won and a favorable treaty was signed in 303 BC. Areas of present East Afghanistan, Baluchistan and Makran were ceded to Maurya from Nicator’s domain, in return of 500 elephants, highly useful in wars in those days.

A marriage alliance was negotiated and the daughter of Nicator was given in marriage to Chandragupta. She came to live in Pataliputra, the capital of Maurya kingdom and along with her came many Greek maiden as her companions. Envoys were exchanged and Megasthenes from the court of Nicator came to live in Pataliputra, and left his impressions of India in a write up called Indica.

Chandragupta was of Shudra caste and not a kshatrya. His Prime Minister Kautilya, a Brahman, was the one who skillfully managed to win the throne of Nandas to Chandragupta. It was an interesting combination – a shrewd Brahman adviser and a Shudra man with muscles. Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, still stands in India for shrewdness or ‘Chanakya tantra.’ The book he wrote, Arthasastra bears witness to this fact.

At the end, Chandragupta became an ardent Jaina, abdicated in favor of his son Bindusara and retired to Sharavanabelgola in today’s Karnataka. He became an ascetic and in the orthodox traditions of Jain religion, he ended his life by regulated slow starvation - self euthanasia? Well, Jain religion permits the same.

Interestingly, the next ruler, Bindusara, asked and received as gifts from Greek King Antiochus I, sweet wine, dried figs and a sophist! On his death in 276 BC, after a period of scuffle with his brothers over the throne, Ashoka succeeded in enthroning himself as an Emperor in 272 BC. His empire extended from north-western India to the east and up to Karnataka in the south. Kalinga was outside his empire and he waged a war and won it.

In the southern peninsula, the Chera, Chola and Pandya kings were ruling and Ashoka seemed to have had friendly relations with them and also with the Sri Lankan king. He had contacts with Antiochus II Theos of Syria, (260-246 BC); Ptolomy II Philadelphus of Egypt (285-247 BC); Antigonus Gonatus of Macedonia (276-239 BC); Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus.

There were a lot of Greek influences on the Mauryan kings and the people and vice versa. Capitals of the Ashokan pillars are remarkably similar to those at Persepolis and the very idea of engraving on rocks by Ahoka could have come to him on hearing those of the King Darius. He made many Major and Minor Rock Edicts and later engraved on polished sandstone monolithic pillars with animals depicted as capitals, called Pillar Edicts.

Ashoka campaigned against Kalinga kingdom in 260 BC and won. But the destruction caused by the war filled him with deep remorse. 150,000 people were deported; 100,000 soldiers died fighting; and many more perished. The misery caused to the families and the survivors touched his heart. “This participation is all men in suffering weighs heavily on my mind,” he engraved in his Major Rock Edict XIII.

Gradually Ashoka became an ardent Buddhist and adopted non-violence as his principle. The Third Buddhist Council was held during his time at Pataliputra. Decision to spread Buddhism actively was taken during this council and proselytizing was taken up all over India and Asia. His own son Mahinda went to Sri Lanka to preach Buddhism.

It is of interest to note that Ashoka gifted a branch of the original Bodhi tree under which Buddha obtained enlightenment to Sri Lankan Prince and that had survived till today, whereas unfortunately the original tree in India itself was vandalized by anti-Buddhist elements and got destroyed completely.

Emperor Ashoka died in 232 BC and the empire broke up soon afterwards and it ended when the last Mauryan ruler was assassinated by his Commander-in- Chief, Pushyamitra, a Brahman. The usurper founded the Shunga dynasty; thus ended the first experiment in imperial government in India.

Many historians have blamed Ashoka’s non-violence policy, his emphasis on social ethics and his taking active part in propagating Buddhism which went against the grain of Vedic Brahmanism, as the causes for the Empire’s decline and demise. Not necessarily. The real causes may have to be looked at elsewhere.

Vast resources were required to maintain a great standing army, the payment of salary to the higher bureaucracy, the highly centralized administration, and such other costs of maintaining the Empire would have been a great strain on the treasury. The main tax revenue was land revenue, as it was very much an agrarian economy, through trade also flourished. Towards the end there seemed to have been a drought and decline in the fortunes of the empire.

Interesting facts about Ancient India

There is so much to know about ancient India that if volumes were written, it will not suffice. So I continue this incredulous journey of revisiting India in its ancient glory. We are now moving to 6^th century BC, when a second urbanization seemed to have taken place, the first one being in Indus Valley civilization of 2500 BC.

At this time in the north-east India, gana-sanghas have come to be, which were confederacy of clans governed through an assembly. They gave equal status to all people within their sangha (Assembly) and did not follow the Vedic rituals or varnas. Chiefdoms and kingdoms also arose, transition from chiefship to king not being very distant. Kingdoms had a centralized system of governance with the sovereign king at the center.

Earlier the kings were from Kshatrya caste, but very soon kings arose from shudra caste also. These required legitimization, which was done by the Brahman priests for gifts and money, conducting huge brahmanical rituals. Thus throne and priesthood were mutually supportive of each other, just as in would be in the later cases of Christendom and Islamic Caliphates.

Four rival states arose in northern India, three kingdoms of Kashi, Kosala and Magadha, and one gana-sangha, Vrijjis. Of these by 550 BC, Magadha will emerge prominent after overpowering the other states. Along with that administrative systems began, collection of land revenue, one sixth of the produce as belonging to the king and other trappings of power. Village was the basic unit and official assessment of the tax was made by the officials of the kingdom on the produce.  

Varna hierarchy became consolidated with Brahmans laying down the rules reinforced by their ritual powers; kshatryas, through rulers had to depend on Brahman priests to legitimize their sovereignty through Vedic rituals; next in importance came traders, the vaishyas, and then the shudras, who managed to get incorporated as Kshatryas when opportunities presented and also as traders and land owners.

Below all of them were the out castes or the untouchables, who were actually the forest dwellers in the margins of the settlements, which either pushed them deeper into the forests or eke out their living as marginalized people at the fringes of the settlements. They were forced to do manual jobs and the dirty jobs for the community and were accommodated as the lowest of the low in the caste system.

As landless and displaced people they had no voice. They were not allowed to have any weapons. The combination of hereditary status with economic deprivation and social disabilities ensured a permanent and subjugated labor force, for the rest of the community – a very convenient form of slavery, which continued for millennia, in some rural parts of India even today. It is nothing but a curse on Indian social ethos, which got ingrained into Indian social system as early as 600 BC.

Magadha Kingdom came into being with Bimbisara by 550 BC and his son Ajatashatru, who died in 461 BC. Their capital was Rajagriha; Pataliputra was an important town. As a means of conquest of the neighboring kingdoms and sanghas, they had to keep a standing army. They controlled the nodal points in Ganges river system, dominating the river trade. Land was fertile in the Ganges valley and the land tax and tax from trade kept their treasuries full.

This was followed by Shishunga dynasty which didn’t last very long and Nanda, a shudra, usurped and established his own Nanda dynasty. He would be the first of many non-Kshatrya kings. Nandas built canals for irrigation even up to Kalinga (Orissa). Mauryas usurped the Nanda throne in 321 BC.

In the north-western India, even more interesting things were happening. During 6^th century BC, north-western India was a part of Achaemenid Empire. In 530 BC Cyrus, Achaemenid Emperor of Persia crossed over Hindu Kush and received tribute from the kings of Kamboja and Gandhara. These became his provinces ruled by local satraps. It is the same Cyrus mentioned in the Bible, who permitted by an imperial order, the Jews living in exile in Babylon to return to their land, Palestine and helped them rebuild their Temple. Check out Ezra[1] in the Bible, the book starts with Cyrus the king of Persia!

Bible makes reference to the Persian king again in the Book of Esther, where it states that the King of Persia, Xerxes, ruled over 127 provinces, stretching from India to Cush (Upper Nile region).[2] Esther’s story happened around 483 BC, when Xerxes was the Emperor.

Herodotus, early historian of renown, names Gandhara as the most populous and wealthy satrapy in Achaemenid kingdom. It is understood from these writings that Indian provinces provided mercenaries for the Persian army to fight against the Greeks in 5^th century BC. Xerxes attacked Greece and won at Thermopylae in 481 BC, but got defeated at Salamis in 480 BC. Indian warriors were dressed in cotton clothes and carried red bows, spear and arrows tipped with iron. Wow, imagine that! Indians taking part in the battle of Thermopylae in Greece! World was quite small even then, I suppose!

There were other cities in north-western India, Tahshashila (Taxila) for example, which was described by Greeks as a cosmopolitan center, where Greek, Iranian and Indian knowledge and learning mingled. Persian coins were copied in India. Even the rock inscriptions of Ashoka, a later Mauryan Emperor, were influenced by the rock inscriptions of Persian King Darius. King Darius also is mentioned in the Bible as one of the Kings served by Daniel,[3] en exile from Israel, who rose to very high positions under Persian Emperors.  

The script used in north-western India around this time was Kharoshthi, derived from Aramaic, the official language of the Persian Acheamenid Empire. Recall, Jesus and his disciples spoke in Aramaic in the first century AD![4]

Acheamenid Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great from Macedonia in 330 BC. Alexander, wanting to conquer the farthest eastern provinces of Persian Empire, came to north-west India and campaigned for two years. As his soldiers refused to go any further, he traveled along the Indus river up to its delta and sent one part of his army back via Persian Gulf and the other took the coastal land route.

It is this latter part of his army that met stiff resistance from Indian kings, especially Porus (Puru), who fought Alexander’s forces at the Battle of Hydaspes (Jhelum River) and was vanquished, but maintained his dignity. Appreciating his valor, Alexander appointed him as his satrapy and left.

Alexander had brought along literate Greeks, who have left their impressions of India, both facts and fable. The invasion opened up routes along which trade and communication flourished. India established connections with Mesopotamia even, through Afghanistan and Iran/Persia.

There was cultural exchange between these countries, for Indian enlightened gurus, munis or sophists are said to have accompanied Alexander to Babylon. Indian thought definitely influenced those of Greek and Persian and in turn borrowed from them too, leading to enrichment all over. Greeks were called Yavana in Sanskrit and Yona in Prakrit.

Another interesting fact: early trade in India was facilitated by setthis, entrepreneurs of trade and finances. Where do you think our Shettys in Mangalore, Chettiars in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Shets from north India come from! From these ancient Setthis only. Talk about the ancient roots of castes in India!

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[1] The Book of Ezra, chapter 1, verse 1. (Ezra 1:1)

[2] The Book of Esther, 1:1

[3] Book of Daniel 9:1

[4] Gospel of Mark 5:41 reports Jesus called out to the girl who was dead, Talitha Koum, which meant ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up,’ and she arose! Then Mark reports in Mark 7:34, of Ephphatha, meaning ‘Be opened,’ which Jesus used while giving sight to a blind man; Jesus called his heavenly Father as Abba, meaning Father. Mark 14:34.

The Wonder that India was!

It is a long time since I read Indian history, especially the ancient history of India. So it was a pleasure to read the well researched latest book by Romila Thaper[1] on the subject.

We know that Indians were not very good at writing historical treaties. Anything in writing comes only from 300 BC onward. Having said that I must add quickly that the absence of such historical documents has well been compensated by other more reliable evidences like coins, inscriptions and archaeological findings.  

To start at the very beginning, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in Indus valley have been excavated and it brought to the world’s notice that there was a flourishing civilization, an urban one at that, around 3000 to 2600 BC in India. It is amazing to find out that the Indus Valley civilization had contacts with their contemporary Mesopotamian civilization in the Fertile Crescent.

Harappa seals, beads and weights have been found there, confirming trade in those remote times between civilizations far apart. Coastal shipping from western India along Gulf to the Tigris- Euphrates delta has been evolving ever since. Contacts with Afghanistan and Iran were maintained through the mountain passes, in the North West of India.

In Harrapan civilization bead-making was an extensive industry, using gold, copper, shell, semi-precious stones, and ivory. Etched carnelian bead was its trade mark. The cities show a sophisticated sense of civic planning and organisation.

Harappans worshiped goddesses and fertility cult was prevalent as shown by female figurines. But there were no horses on seals or anywhere else as our present government sponsored historians would like to prove, for horse was not indigenous to India. It was around 2000 BC that Indo-Iranian borders show the arrival of horses, chariots and spiked wheel into India from north west India. 

The Hindu Kush Mountains in the northwest India were the route immigrants, traders and conquerors took from time immemorial to reach India. The Bolan and Khyber passes served as passages, the corridors of communication, through which missionaries from Persia, caravans of merchants from Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan and invading armies all found their way to India.

In the north east, Himalayan Mountains being at higher altitude and difficult terrain, not much traffic or trade was evidenced, but Central Asian Silk Route passed through it. Southern peninsula had Vindhaya Mountains to filter in the armies and immigrants, but trade did pass through. Central India was peopled by tribal societies and forest people.

The people speaking Indo-Aryan language poured into North West India through these passes in the Second millennium. By 1500 BC, they had become dominant, not necessarily due to military conquest, but mainly because they had advanced technology, including the swift horse, and claim to ritual authority. They spread in the Indus valley and slowly migrated towards the Gangetic valley in the east.

There is affinity in the language used in the Vedic corpus authored by these immigrants and the Iranian Avasta. Both have derived from Central Asian Indo-European group of languages.

The Vedic corpus, Mahabharata, Ramayana, the well known epics of Aryan settlers along with Puranas, began as oral traditions and was written down in the present textual form only in the early first millennium AD, after many centuries. Just imagine, the teachings of Jesus of 33 AD were written down within 30-40 years after his death and resurrection!

Rig Veda and its associated writings were primarily manuals of ritual and commentaries on these, composed by 1500 BC. Central Asia was the original habitat of these Indo-Aryan people, who migrated to Iran and into India. Avasta, the religious book of Zoroastrianism and Rig-Veda bear many similarities. Horses arrived with them. They disapproved fertility cult of the farmer inhabitants, but had their own fertility cult involving the wife of the ruler, the Queen and the horse of Ashwameda yagna sacrifice.

Worship of fire became central to the rituals as in Iran and India, and women were kept under control. The wife of a Kshatrya warrior went on to the funeral pyre of the husband. Wow, look at the deep roots of Sati! Why then some of the Rajasthan people are objecting to the depiction of mass immolation of the wives of the warriors, including the Queen, whose husbands faced Kilji and got defeated as portrayed in Padmavat, the recent movie?

Upanishads arrive around 800 BC, carrying with them the explanation for present day suffering as due of the past sins and repeated births and deaths, samsara, to pay off the penalty; Karma theory and a justification of the caste system, which by that time had developed into four familiar varnas and got entrenched in the psyche of Indians.

So caste is not a creation of the British as some would want us to think. It was developed in India since 500-800 BC.

How grateful should believers in Christ be, for their penalty was paid by Christ on the cross, and all that they had to do was to accept Christ and what he did on the cross. No karma theory or samsara entanglement for them.

The Golden Age of Vedic period was said  to be from 1200 to 600 BC by which time the corpus was completed. Sanskrit, the language of the Vedic corpus, had evolved by borrowing many elements of Dravidic and Austro-Asiatic languages which were prevalent in India that time. Very soon the India-Aryan language Sanskrit became the dominant language, reflecting the Aryan speaking people.

Panini wrote his grammar treatise Ashtadhyayi around fifth century BC. The upper castes were familiar with Sanskrit, but preferred use of Prakrit for general and routine matters.

Social codes like Dharmasutras came in by this time and the Brahmanical religion based on Vedic corpus, caste system, karma and samsara and varnashramadharma came to be the dominant cultural milieu in India by the second half of the last millennium, 500 BC.

Well, that is a great historical beginning. If you would like to know what happened from 600 BC onward in the Gangetic plain, where a second urbanization took place, with the emergence of small kingdoms and clans, you need to wait for my next blog.

Good bye till then.  

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[1] Romila Thapar, The Penguin History of Early India: From Origins to AD 1300, Penguin Books, India, 2003.