By
20th century BC, the Neolithic Revolution across the world brought
permanent settlements and urbanization of different Human groups on the
bank of
rivers and the fertile lands. The Hamitic
race established empire in Egypt and their culture is recorded in the
hieroglyphic inscriptions. The Semitic race conquered Chaldea, united
Sumir and Accad (Mesopotamia). The details of their civilization have
been recorded
in the cuneiform inscriptions and
tablets. The third race of humans, Turanians,
founded a kingdom in China and helped in the cultivation of arts and
literatures.
The fourth group was of Aryans who
flourished in the Indian subcontinent after conquering the agriculturist
aboriginal races of the Indus Valley. These human settlements, which
contributed significantly in shaping the human civilization, are
classified as the
first four ancient civilizations of the world. In the Indian
subcontinent, even
before the invasion of Aryans, the aboriginals of the Indus Valley were
quite
developed with respect to architecture, technology, administration and
religious beliefs. Therefore they are also referred as Indus Valley
Civilization.
1.1 From
Stone age to Indus valley civilization
The
period of the arrival of modern Humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) in South Asia
has been traced around 30000 BC. However recent archeological evidences
indicate presence of early Homo sapiens in certain parts of India dating 65,000
years back. In the process of evolution, Homo sapiens is the only surviving
species of genus Homo left on the earth.
Based on the immunological distances (ID), biologists put Humans closer to
African Apes like Chimpanzee, Gorillas and Pongo. It is estimated that their common
ancestors branched off from the old world
monkeys around 30 million years ago. Around 5 million (50 lakh) years ago, the
ancestors of Humans branched off from their common ancestor with Chimpanzee; however
DNA of both matches still to the extent of > 95.0%. Thereon, the Homo divided
into many sub-species that lived in different parts of the world. With time almost
all became extinct except Homo sapiens of Africa who were developed around 200,000
years ago and now evolved in the form of modern Humans. In the evolution phase,
it is believed that the entire race of Homo saw near extinction around 70000 BC.
It is referred as a population bottleneck
caused by Toba Catastrophe. The
catastrophe is tagged as one of the earth’s known largest eruption till now. It
occurred in Lake Toba in Indonesia.
Scientists believe that it resulted in 6-10 year of volcanic winter on the earth
and near extinction of the human race. Based on the genetic evidences,
scientists estimate the presence of nearly 10,000 peoples or 1,000 breeding
couples on the entire globe after the catastrophe. They claim that all humans
alive today, despite their apparent variety, have been descended from that very
small population left. The last sub-species of the group Homo to become extinct
was of Homo Neanderthals. They were
present in Europe as early as 30000 BC. They branched off from their common
ancestors with Homo sapiens some 0.7 to 1 million (7-10 lakh) years ago.
In
the evolutionary process, the out of Africa migration of Homo sapiens towards
various parts of the world took place around 70000 – 77000 BC. The migration started
around 60,000 years ago over the Arabian Peninsula brought them over Eurasia. There
one group settled in coastal areas around the Indian Ocean and other group
migrated further north to the steppes of central Asia. Migration towards Europe
started some 45,000 years ago. It is believed that Homo sapiens coexisted with
Homo Neanderthals for nearly 15,000 years before the latter became extinct. The
coexistence is supported by genetic evidences which points towards
interbreeding between them as all present non-African humans show 1- 4% of
their DNA derived from Neanderthals. As Homo sapiens migrated and settled in different
regions of the globe, marked changes were brought in their physical appearance
over a period of thousands of years due to different climatic and geographical
conditions. This resulted in the evolution of different human races, however
genetics between them do not change much and remained closer than that found between
sub-species of any other animal group on the earth.
On
civilization front, the progress of Humans remained very slow after they separated
from Chimpanzee group. It took them almost 4.7 million (47 lakh) years to use
stone as a tool for their various needs, a trait common in many other living
species of the earth. Scientists have termed it beginning of Stone Age. It spreads from 350,000 years
ago till 8000 BC. The very early stone tools consisted of scrapers, slicers and
needles. After 50000 BC, more refined tools like knives, blades, skimmers and
so on were developed. The period after 50000 BC saw faster developments in
language, music and behavioral front. They started burying their dead,
developed various hunting techniques and made cave painting, traces of which
are still present. The era of 8000 BC emerged as milestone in the development
of humans as they became food producers than a mere hunter or food gatherers.
Scientists have termed it Neolithic Revolution. The agricultural techniques
developed in this period led to their permanent settlements on fertile lands. By
4000 BC, Mesopotamia, Egypt’s Nile Valley and Indus Valley emerged as major
settlements of humans with administration and military forces for protection.
These settlements are therefore referred as the first proto-states of the world.
On population front, the humans saw their number growing from 10,000 to 5-15
million (50 lakh - 1.5 crore) from 70000 BC to 8000 BC. It increased to 170 -
400 million (17- 40 crore) by 1st AD.
1.1.1 The Indus Valley
Civilization
The
out of Africa migration of Humans toward Indian subcontinent took place in
various phases. The first group of humans has been termed as Negroids. They
were followed by Pre-Dravidians, Proto-Dravidians and then Dravidians. The last
three are classified under Australoid
race having black to dark brown skin. They are estimated to have arrived in the
Indus valley around / after 8000 BC as farmers. Their arrival led to the
development of first urban settlement in south Asia and it is famously termed
as the Indus Valley civilization or Harappa Civilization. It is believed to
be fully developed around 2700 - 2800 BC in the vicinity of Indus River which
is now part of Pakistan and northwestern India. The civilization existed till
1900 BC with population spreading over 1 million sq. Km., an area bigger than
that of Mesopotamian civilization (present Iraq). Archeological excavations
point Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro and Ganweriwala in Pakistan and Rakhigarhi
(Haryana), Dholavira (Gujrat) in India as five main cities of habitation and a
beautiful example of highly sophisticated layouts and other functional designs
of human settlements belonging to that era. All cities had wide streets, public
and private wells, drains and bathing platforms and reservoirs. The sophisticated
planning of the cities hints towards the existence of a civic administrative
body for managing such complex systems. The civilization is understood to have
gone for technological sharing between them as same size bricks have been found
from other Indus cities too. Each city is estimated to be the home of nearly 30,000-50,000
humans with total population of the civilization around 5 million, the number which
could be making 10% of the total human population of the world at that time. On
the religious front, the Indus civilization practiced totemism / animism
(animal worship, Zoolatry) on a wide scale like other ancient civilizations who
worshipped animals like horse, goat, dog, wolf, elephant, monkey, bull, cow,
tiger, snake, pig and so on. In the system, a group of humans considered them
connected with supernatural power (or spirit) through an animal or plant. The
animal and plant was therefore considered sacred and killing was prohibited by
that group. Slowly these sacred animals formed pillars of their religious
beliefs, evident from the archeological evidences, and started appearing in the
religious literatures in one or the other form. Other than the animal worship,
some evidences revealed worship of god having three faces and horned headdress,
very similar to present Hindu God Shiva, also known as Pashupati (lord of the animals). Some excavations resulted naked
idols in yoga position, possibly indicating towards the prevalence of Jainism
like faith in certain sections of Indus civilization. The archeological
evidences also point towards the worship of the mother goddess along with the sacrifices
of goats and other animals. Based on these evidences, it can be said that the
religious beliefs of Indus people were very similar to present day Hinduism
with tantra and yoga as its major component.
After
touching the zenith, the Indus valley civilization of Dravidians was
devastated
around 2000 BC after the loss of agricultural land due to drought,
flooding and
some other climatic changes. The majority population moved towards
eastern and
southern directions in search of livelihood. The remaining Dravidian
population
was further displaced from the Indus sites after migration of nomadic
Indo-Aryan
group of humans from the western front. This way their displacement
coupled
with expansion continued for the next 2,000 - 2,500 years leading to
current
demographics of India. The hymns of Rig
Veda, one of the ancient texts of Indo-European language family and
composed by Aryans, refer these
aboriginal civilizations as Dasas
(slaves) or Dasyus (brigands), who are black skinned (Krishnathvach),
noseless or flat nosed (anasa), of unintelligible speech (mridhravach),
not sacrificing (ayajnan), worshipping no Vedic gods (adevayu) and
following strange customs (anyavrata) [1]. The
hymns go on describing these foes as living in the form of various
tribes such
as Dasas, Dasyus, Simyus, Asuras and Kikatas who are wealthy (cattle
rich),
of great courage and possessing strong forts and castles which are
almost
impregnable. The hymns of Rig Veda and Mahabharata further show that the
settlements
of Dravidians were not easily displaced by Aryans and a fierce
battle took
place between the warrior classes of both civilizations. While
portraying the
war, the hymns list aboriginal warrior groups with different names and
even show
some as animals in the name of animal worshipped by them. The animal
linked name
of aboriginal warriors was the extension of naming their own warrior
classes
whereby they were known as Suryavanshi
(sun worshipper) and Chandravanshi
(moon worshipper). Rig Veda, through the dialogue between Indra and his
wife,
mentions the encounter of Aryans with monkey worshipping aboriginal
tribes (Vanaras) during their expedition.
However, it further records the friendliness of Vanaras towards Aryans
in the
form of Indra’s answer to his wife. Ramayana too records the
friendliness of
Vanaras towards King Rama during his fight with Ravana of Rakshasa
tribe. The hymns also show both
aboriginal ruling tribes, the Vanaras and the Rakshasas, having fierce
enmity with
each other. As Vanaras were friendly to Aryans, cultural fusion between
both
civilizations took place soon. The fusion resulted in many Indo-Aryans
inculcating the former’s religious beliefs and therefore the penetration
of
strong monkey (Hanumana) cult in the Gangetic
plains in Vedic period itself. Though Vanaras were helpful to the
Aryans, the
latter got stiff resistance from the snake worshiping Dravidian tribes,
the Nagas or Sarpas. It was the Nagas who fought with the invading
Aryans for the
longest time. The fierce battle is recorded in both epics Ramayana and
Mahabharata. While Kusha, son of Rama, has been shown defeating Naga
King
Kumuda and marrying princess Kumudavati, Arjuna has been shown to
destroy their
major settlement at Khandava-Vana (present
day Delhi). The battle continued till the time of Janamejaya, the
great-grandson
of Arjuna, whereby he exterminated most of the Naga population of that
region. As
the deity of Naga people was Sarpa
(snake), the war is portrayed in the epic Mahabharata as Janamejaya
performing the
Sarpa Satra sacrifice to finish all
Nagas or sarpas. Another aboriginal population worshipping elephant
(present
Ganesha cult) is not recorded in the Rig Veda indicating that these
human groups
were living on farther east / south of Punjab and Gujarat region where
Aryans
were still not penetrated or they were of less importance to moving Aryans.
Even
though the Dravidians of Australoid race moved towards eastern and southern
part of India, their movement can be compared with a rolling cabbage with loose
pieces that left traces everywhere from its origin to the ultimate destination
of the present day. The interesting example of this is Brahui tribes of Pakistan, south Afghanistan and eastern Iran whose
population was estimated around 1.4 million (14 lakh) in 1980s. In the subcontinent,
they are the only Dravidian language speaking tribe living outside the present
day Indian Territory with nomadic or semi nomadic life [2]. During their movement in eastern direction, they encountered humans of Mongoloid
race (known as Kiratas in the Sanskrit
literatures and now as Nagas) in the hilly areas of northern and entire
north-eastern regions. Though the exact time of arrival of the Kiratas from
south China cannot be established but it is clear that they were settled in
these regions till 1000 BC. Their settlement is evident from Mahabharata which records
the fight of Arjuna with them in the Kailasa region of the Himalaya over claim
of killing demon Muka, a wild boar. Similarly,
the Kiratas of north-eastern Himalayan regions find their mention in Sabha-Parva of Mahabharata when they gifted
ten-thousand (myriad) Kirata girls as slaves to Yudhisthra at Indraprastha as an
acknowledgement of his sovereignty over their regions [3]. As Dravidians and
Mongoloids came in close contact with each other in the eastern regions,
interbreeding between them resulted in the evolution of the Australoid –
Mongoloid breed of humans in subcontinent. This breed now forms some
demographics of the plains of eastern Uttar Pradesh with Mongoloid traces and
population going higher and higher in the hilly areas of entire north India and
the regions of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bengal and Orissa. As Kiratas
worshipped mountain deity (later formed part of Shaiva cult) and mother goddess
(Shakti), these regions witnessed flourishing of strong Shaiva-Shakti cult after
cultural fusion with Dravidians and also emerging as the home of major mythological
Shakti-Peeths in later period.
1.2 Early Iron Age
Vedic Civilization
Few
hypotheses have originated in the recent past contradicting the
migration of
Indo-Aryan group of humans in India. However they fail to convince
anthropologists due to the presence of different human stocks across
subcontinent
such as the majority of those living in Pakistan and northwest India,
those
living in southern India and those living in eastern India who all shows
more
closeness with European, Ethiopians and Mongoloid peoples respectively
than
with each other. Even 2,500 years back, the great Greek historian
Herodotus,
generally considered as the father of
history and lived between 484-425 BC, described the human population of
southern India as closer to Ethiopians and that of northwestern India as
closer
to warlike Bactrians (human population of eastern Iran in those days and
now Afghanistan).
Other than the visible physiological differences, the majority
populations of
northern and southern subcontinent speak totally different languages
which have
no close resemblance with each other except Sanskrit which is basically
the
language of rituals and the priestly class. Even if one considers
today’s entire
subcontinent population originating from the same stock of earlier
humans
present in India or the subcontinent, then they should have shown large
homogeneity in their appearance and dialect owing to the similar
environment
across the subcontinent and possible interbreeding with each other over a
large
time frame before class or caste system came into force. However no such
thing
is visible and therefore it will be fair to say that the Vedic
civilization, which
was different than the Indus civilization in many ways but had some of
its
components, started with the invasion of tall and fair humans, known as
Aryan of Indo – European tribe, around
1900 BC from the western front. The Aryans were a primitive nomadic
tribe, that
is who moved from one place to another. They came in lots in large
numbers over
a period of hundreds of years that can be assumed like waves generated
in a pond
after a stone is thrown in it. Historians have accepted the root of
Indo-Aryans
from the family of Indo – Iranian linguistic group which is a major
branch of
Indo-European language family. Here the term Iranian is derived from the
Old Iranian ethnical adjective Aryana which is of the same origin to
that of Sanskrit word Arya meaning
hospitable or noble. Other than the Indo-Aryans, the other Indo-Iranian
linguistic humans in present times are Iranian
(Iranian plateau, Tajikistan, most part of Afghanistan and some parts of
Iraq,
Turkey, Pakistan), Dardic (found in
eastern Afghanistan, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit –
Balitsatan
and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan) and Nuristani
(northeastern Afghanistan). Together these groups are identified to be
descending from Proto Indo – Europeans,
known as the Andronovo culture, with
their homeland in an area of Eurasian steppe bordering River Ural in the
west
and the Tian Shan in the east.
Around
2000 BC, the civilization made breakthrough in human evolution process by
inventing a horse driven chariot (Latin – rota;
Sanskrit – ratha). The invention played
a crucial role in deciding the outcome of battles for many years to come. It
directly helped in their expansion over a large territory by defeating the
aboriginal human settlers of those regions. Slowly the civilization branched in
many groups with one section moving towards the Indian subcontinent after crossing
the Bactrian land and mountain ranges of the Indus Valley. There they clashed
with the humans belonging to Dravidian civilization and the battle continued
till the latter’s sub-ordination to them or complete displacement from the area.
The literary advanced civilization of Indo-Aryans, who were now settled in the Indus
Valley, referred seven rivers of the valley as Sapta-Sindhu. It may have
included rivers like Indus (Sindhu), Satadru (Sutlej), Parusni (Ravi), Vitasta
(Jhelum), Suvastu (Svat), Kubha (Kabul) and Gomati (Gomal) [4]. The other sections of Indo-Iranians, who were settled in the
west of mountain ranges of the Indus Valley (i.e. Bactria / eastern Iran), referred
these rivers as Hapta-Hindu in their
Persian literatures due to dialect differences. In the same tone, they referred
the humans settled across the Indus Valley as Hindu which other than the Indo-Aryans also included Negroids,
Dravidians, Mongoloids and their crossbreeds who all had a different physical
appearance and religious orientations. From then onwards, not only Persians but
other civilizations too referred the humans settled across the Indus River with
their geographical identity Hindus or
Indus (and the word itself had no
origin or traces of linkage with any faith or religion present or flourished in
the subcontinent which are mentioned in the ancient and medieval Indian
religious literatures till the British Indian Census of 19th century
AD when it was given a religious touch). After branching, the language of
Indo-Iranians started deviating with time but for many years few technical or
mythological terms remained same. It is evident from the treaty entered between
Mitanni King (present day Syria region) and his neighboring King Suppiluliuma
of Hittite (present day Turkey) around 1380 BC. In the treaty Mitanni ruler
swore by deities like Mitra, Indra,
Varuna and Nasatya (Ashvins) very similar to Indo – Aryan
deities mentioned in the Rig Veda. Further the texts of Kikkuli, the master
horse trainer of the Mitanni land and writer of chariot horse training text
around 1400 BC in Hittite language, uses technical terms like aika, tera, panza, satta, na, vartana
etc, very similar to Sanskrit words eka,
tri, pancha (Greek pente), sapta,
nava, (Latin novem) and vartana
(turn round in the horse race; Latin vertere, vortex) [5].
After
settling in the Indus Valley, the Indo-Aryans remained offensive towards
aboriginal population and their culture for many years. However in subsequent
years, they got influenced by certain parts of it and therefore the birth of Gandhara grave culture around 1600 BC.
The new culture formed the basis of early Rigvedic society which slowly spread
over entire northern India by 1000 BC. The hymns of Rig Veda list details of
this civilization other than preserving many of its Indo-Iranian elements
including the language and content just like preserved by the civilization of Mitanni
land. The hymns show the society less
developed than Dravidians about urban planning but more advanced in literary
work and social organizations. It is shown patriarchal whose populations lived
in small settlements known as Vish
and Grama (village). In the villages,
the houses are shown to be made up of mud and plastered with cow dung. In towns
and cities, they are of wooden materials and some even multistoried. For
livelihood, the majority population was involved in cattle rearing and
agriculture. They bred cattle like horses, sheep and goats which were highly
valued and used as a medium of exchange in barter system. Some of the
population was skilled in spinning, weaving, carpentry and in making bronze
utensils and weapons. On spiritual and religious behaviors, the individual’s life
was divided into four ashrams (phases)
– Brahmacharya, grihasta, vanaprastha and sanyasa. Unlike Dravidians who
practiced animism, they worshipped natural phenomena assuming them alive. As the
horse driven chariot played crucial role in their victory and expansion, the
same was associated with some of their gods as their vahnas unlike Dravidians and Mongoloids whose gods continued to
have animals as their vahna. The gods
of the Indo-Aryans included Dyo
(heaven), Prithvee (earth), Surya (sun), Agni (fire), Vayu (air), Usha
(dawn) and so on with Indra holding prominent position amongst them. While worshipping
their gods, they carried many rituals that included burning fires at home,
singing hymns to the gods, making offerings in the form of rice, milk or even
animals by sacrificing them in yajna. Some devoted considerable time in
religious activities although they did not pray at the temple like places or
worship images. With time, due to the interdependence between the members of villages for various purposes, their society is
shown to be divided into four occupational classes – warrior (Kshatriya), priest (Brahmin), trader (Vaishaya)
and laborer (slaves). The society was largely dominated by warrior and priestly
class together. However, the class system was neither hierarchical nor rigid owing
to their common physical appearance or origin and the people moved from one
class to another depending on their karma
(duty). Over a period of hundreds of years after their settlements, they
organized their community in small tribal units called Jana with chiefs and ruling councils. The important janas mentioned
are Druhyus, Yadus, Anus, Turvasas
and Purus with several other minor
tribes such as that of Bharatas. Later
these janas were developed into the Janpadas
and the chief was known as Raja
(King). The characters, Rama, Krishna and Kaurvas – Pandvas of great Indian
epics Ramayana and Mahabharata existed around these times only. The culture of
horse driven chariot with nomads like life helped in their rapid expansion across
the northern subcontinent by conquering the aboriginal tribes and therefore
this period is generally considered as the first wave of expansion of Indo –
Aryan humans towards South Asia.
1.3 Later Iron Age Vedic civilization - click here to read
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References:
[1] Chandra, R. (2005). Identity and Genesis of
Caste System in India, p.57. New Delhi: Kalpaz
[2] Andronov, M.S. (2003). A Comparative Grammar
of the Dravidian Languages, p 21. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
[3] Singh,
G.P. (2008). Researches Into The History and Civilization of the Kiraatas, p.
222. New Delhi: Gyan.
[4] Garg, G.R.
(1992). Encyclopedia Of The Hindu World, p. 3. New Delhi: Concept.
[5] Kak, S. (2008). The Wishing Tree : Presence
and Promise of India, p. 105. Bloomington: iUniverse.
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Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
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