Readings in History Part 6 - Back to Indus (-Sarasvati) valley

The Indus valley civilization has been a source of great intrigue for me. I had written about it in two previous posts. In my first post, which was summarizing John Keay's book on Indian History, I had mentioned the common (Western?) view of the Indus valley civilization  that it was distinct from the Vedic Aryan civilization. This was backed partially by the fact that there seemed to be no link between the undeciphered Indus script and the Vedic Sanskrit.

Recently, I have been made aware of a completely different thread of thought wherein the Vedic civilization is nothing but a continuation of the Indus valley people & heritage. This thinking also happens to be contrary to the Aryan Invasion theory according to which the Vedic Aryans "invaded"  India from somewhere in Central Europe or Asia.

An engrossing and scholarly work by Michel Danino titled Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati lays a strong foundation for this line of thinking. The book starts as a hunt for the river Sarasvati that is the most mentioned and praised river in the Rig Veda. One of the Rig Vedic hymns lists a set of rivers  in order : Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (Sutlej)...., Sindhu (Indus),.... This order happens to correspond to the modern rivers in the region from east to west (with Sarasvati missing today of course). The rishis of the Rig Veda praise Sarasvati as a gushing river 'breaking through the ridges of the mountains with her strong waves'.

Danino makes a convincing case for Sarasvati to be the antecedent of the current Ghagra-Hakkar river system in Haryana and Punjab which is now a seasonal river that dries up much before it reaches the sea in the Thar desert. This location is in between the Yamuna on the east and the Sutlej on the west and aligns with the east-to-west order mentioned in the Rig Veda. If this was indeed a gushing river with huge flows in Vedic times, how did it get reduced to this seasonal stream? Danino cites various studies that point to a seismic event in the foothills of the Himalayas (close to where the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers originate) that might have happened sometime in the 3rd Millennium BCE. The realignment of the terrain caused by this earthquake caused these two rivers that were then tributaries of Sarasvati to change course radically. The Sutlej got diverted to the west and got captured by the Indus system. The Yamuna, which was then a westward flowing river into the Sarasvati was diverted eastward where it joined the Ganges. The diversion of two of its primary water sources was the primary cause of the Sarasvati drying up.

Now, how is all of this connected to the Harappan civilization? (the reason I start referring to the Indus valley civilization as the Harappan civilization will become clear soon). It turns out that a full cataloging of all the Indus valley sites reveal a close association of the Harappan civilization with the Sarasvati river and its tributaries. Even though the most well known sites of the Indus valley civilization (Harappa and Mohenjadaro) are located along the Indus river, there are hundreds of sites that have since been discovered along the course of what would have been the Sarasvati river and its tributaries at that time.

Further, a classification of Harappan sites as early, mature and late happens to align well with the history of when the river was flowing and when it started shifting course as established by the geological evidence. Mature sites are found along the original course and as it starts drying up, late sites show up further east closer to the Yamuna. Given the association of the Harappan sites with the Sarasvati river's course, Danino (and many other archeologists) argue that if the civilization should be named after any river(s), it should be called the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. Or more neutrally, the Harappan civilization after the first discovered site.

So, we have the Vedic Aryans living close to the Sarasvati witnessing its robust flows and Harappan sites have been found in exactly those locations. If the Vedic Aryans arrived in India 500 years after the decline of the Harappan civilization in the 2nd millennium BCE as per the prior belief, then they could not have seen the Sarasvati in full flow since the geological evidence suggests that it had dried up by then. This is actually the starting point for Danino's elaborate argument that the Vedic society and latter day Indian civilization is nothing but a continuation of the Harappan civilization. The Harappans did not vanish. They just moved eastward as the rivers shifted courses and settled eventually in the Gangetic plain. This makes the Indian civilization the longest running continuous civilization in history as per Danino and others who share this thinking (this may just explain the 1.2 billion).

If the Harappans are closely associated with the Vedic Aryans, that seemingly contradicts the theory put forth by I. Mahadevan and Asko Parpola  that the Harappan script might be a written form of a proto-Dravidian language. Or does it? Only if you equate languages with civilizations. May be there were proto-Dravidian speakers living among the Harappans (Vedic Aryans). There is a lot of other evidence that suggests the Harappans themselves were a very diverse loosely federated society with no central control.

The book continues with an elaborate discussion of the Harappan civilization, and how, many of their traditions show up in modern day cities along the Gangetic plain. More on that later.

- Balaji

Mamallapuram - part I

It was the last week of my 2-month sabbatical and I made a 3 day trip to Chennai. One of those days was spent in Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram), 50km from Chennai on the East Coast Road. Mamallapuram is the site of the world famous sculpural complex constructed by the Pallava Dynasty in the 7th/8th centuries CE.
This was no ordinary trip. I was accompanied by my friend RG who has learnt about Mamallapuram from the likes of noted cultural enthusiast Prof. S. Swaminathan and Prof. Balusamy of Madras Christian College, who have researched Mamallapuram extensively and written about it. My friend had been on the ultimate guided tour of Mamallapuram with Profs. Swaminathan, Balusamy and others; he was kind enough to pass the knowledge on to me. The knowledge RG has will easily surpass the government certified tour guides you will find in Mamallapuram. I was in good hands.

Who built Mamallapuram?
There is some debate about which of the great Pallava rulers had them sculpted. The more prevalent theory is that Narasimha I (son of Mahendravarma Pallava) constructed most of the complex except the shore temple which is attributed to his grandson Rajasimha or (Narasimha II). There is another theory that says the whole thing was constructed by Rajasimha.
It is hard to believe that sculptures of this variety, sophistication and scale could have been done in one ruler's reign. In fact it is quite possible that Mahendravarma Pallava (Narasimha Pallava's father) may have conceived and started the whole venture and it was finished by his descendants.

Why is Mamallapuram a big deal? 
It is the only place in the world where you can find four different sculptural ideas executed -

Giant monolithic shrines carved out of entire hillocks (e.g. the Pandava rathas)

Cave temples dug into a rock face with a mandapa, pillars, one or more shineswith no upper vimana or gopuram (e.g. the Varaha Manadapam)

Open-air bas-relief scultptures Elaborate sculptural panels on a rock face depicting a certain theme or an event from the Hindu epics or puranas. e.g. Arjuna's Penance

Structural Temples Non-monolithic temples (i.e.) constructed the "regular" way; e.g. the Shore Temple

When you see the variety of techniques being attempted and not necessarily completed - many of the mandapas and rathas are unfinished - you wonder if Mamallapuram was a sculptural laboratory of sorts.

Of course, India has a rich sculptural heritage and there are plenty of places where you might see grander temples (at Tanjore, Konark for instance) and arguably more intricate sculptures (at Belur, Halebid for instance). However keep in mind that Mamallapuram pre-dates almost all of them, often by many hundreds of years. In fact, there is a belief that Mamallapuram inspired a lot of South Indian temple architecture.

Objectively, I am amazed by the sheer ambition, scale, sophistication and the engineering. Examples of the engineering are the perfect curvilinear surfaces that roof the Draupadi Ratha  and the 3-dimensional perspective vision in the Mahishasura mardhini and minor Elephant panel. See Mahisha below who looks bigger because he is closest to the observer while Durga is further back and looks smaller;

Subjectively, many believe that the sculptures have a grace that is not seen too often in latter day sculptural art in India. Gods and other figures are depicted in unique poses with subtle angles (look at Mahisha's indecisive pose) that hold a lot of intrigue. There is also the innovation, quirkiness (Mahisha seems to be the emphasis rather than Goddess Durga?) and audacity (e.g. of giant monoliths that get completed over decades across what must have been multiple sculptor's lifetimes).

RG could go into each panel or structure for about 20 minutes, describing the scene, the figures depicted and the various subtleties. Clearly, I cannot do justice in blog posts like these, but I will try and go into some detail on some of the masterpieces in subsequent posts.

- Balaji

Hampi Trip

Our first long distance drive after returning to India was to Hampi, Karnataka, the capital of the Vijayanagara Kingdom (1337- 1550s). On the way, we took the shorter route that is mostly on state highways after an initial 75km stretch on the nice NH7 (now a 4-lane divided freeway).
This route stumbles through myriad towns and villages on mediocre roads until the last 50km where it resembled the lunar landscape. On the way back, we decided to take the longer (440km) route which took us through a longer (300km) stretch on NH7. I would recommend the longer but faster NH7 route anyday.

Of course, the purpose of this entry is not to analyze road conditions in modern day Karnataka, but to talk about a World Unesco Heritage site that represents the "last great Hindu" kingdom in the south. Legend has it that Harihara and Bukka were inspired by their guru Vidyaranya to establish the kingdom on a spot where during a hunting trip, they found a hare turning back and confronting the hounds that were giving it chase.  There were also more pragmatic reasons such as the water from the nearby Tungabadra and the surrounding rocky hillocks which formed a natural fortress from the north. In the North was the Bahmani Sultanate (1347-1518) which after 1518 broke into five sultanates of Ahmednagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur and Golconda (Hyderabad).

As per Sastri (author of History of South India), the kingdom had a tumultous relationship with the Bahmanis with whom they waged wars at times and at other times  forged alliances with one or two of them - the Sultanates of course were fighting among each other all the time. Finally in 1564-65, the Bahamanis decided to set aside their differences and united against their common enemy and waged the decisive battle of Talikota against Rama Raya (the last noteworthy Vijayanagara ruler) on the banks of the Krishna. The battle was going in favor of Rama Raya, until supposedly two of his Muslim commanders deserted him and joined the enemies with thousands of soldiers. Rama Raya himself was killed and the Bahmani army pillaged and burnt Hampi for months leaving it in its current ruined state.

So what you see in Hampi today is mostly in ruins but enough evidence of its one-time greatness is there to be seen. The only intact temple is the Vrupaksha (Lord Siva) temple. In most of the other temples, the super-structure is all gone and you only see the mandapam level (ground floor).  The vimanas  (tower above the main shrine) and gopurams are all gone. The Vittala (Lord Vishnu) temple must have been a glorious temple, which consists of the famous stone chariot and mandapas with "musical pillars" - three pronged pillars where mildly tapping on one of them reverberates musically through the rest of the pillar. You see long colonnaded bazars in front of each temple which were once bustling marketplaces for everything from precious gems to Arabian horses.

There are three stunning monolithic statues - two of Ganesha including the Kadalekalu (peanut-bellied) Ganesha and  Narasimha (reconstructed partially by the Architectural Survey of India). You now only see the arm of Lakshmi who was sitting on Narasimha's left lap. The yoga band around his knees has been reworked by ASI.






The Zenana or the Royal enclosure houses the king and queen's palaces, (what is left of them) a gigantic "parking garage" for the royal elephants (which interestingly is mostly intact) and a beautiful bathing pool. We saw some lighting work in progress for a project called "Hampi by Night" which if done right could offer another way to experience Hampi.

The coracle (தெப்பம்) ride on the Tungabadra is a must-do and is a good way to get to the Vittala temple from downtown Hampi or from the quaint Mango Tree outdoor restaurant  which is further upstream. Hampi is best visited during the winter months as the heat in central Deccan seems to be only amplified by the rock faces that are in abundance in the area.  We decided to stay in an upmarket hotel outside Hampi which was fine if boring; if you're feeling a bit more adventurous you could go for the charming little guest houses (Indian equivalent "B&B"s) right in Hampi.

For more pictures, see the public album in Picasa. 

- Balaji

Getting my car registered - Part two

I got to the window at around 1:40pm bracing myself for a harried and rude official. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find a person who had an air of brisk efficiency and was not unfriendly. He gave crisp responses to my questions and moved my papers along with scribblings on what seemed like random pages in the forms. He asked me to rush for inspection as it was getting to be closing time.

Inspection involves driving up your car on a 2nd line to a waiting police officer. This line was not that long and I reached the head of the queue within a few minutes. The police officer pointed out that I am supposed to get an imprint of the chassis number on the form using a pencil. The friendly instruction sheet surely didn't mention that. I hastily moved the car to unblock the line and my driver - who had joined me by then for moral and logistical support -  ran to the nearby டப்பாக்கடை for a pencil. As I learnt that day, the chassis number can be found somewhere below the driver seat and can be reached conveniently by twisting your upper body into a sciatic pain inducing position. The police officer signed me off and sent me for the next stop which was in an air-conditioned cabin where some higher official (the RTO himself?) needed to give final blessing for  my form.

In the air-conditioned room, there was a guy ahead of me waiting to see this officer. The officer gave a quick dismissal saying it was past closing time. The guy ahead of me mumbled something apologetically and the official grimaced and looked at the form and said something about him really not needing to see it. In any case, he quickly scribbled a signature on his and my forms and sent us to the last stop where our signatures were to be captured electronically to be printed on the registration card.

There was another line for this (of course) which was getting multiplexed with the original slow moving line processed by the same efficient official.  Mercifully, by this time, they were draining the pipeline for the day and this was a short and fast moving line. As I signed, I was told that my license plate number will be assigned in the next few hours and I could look it up at the RTA web site. And the registration itself will arrive by courier within 2 weeks.

Hooray! I was out around 2:15PM. It had taken 2 1/2 hours on the 3rd attempt in which 2 hours was spent waiting in the first queue. While there were enough plot twists and tense moments, I suppose it was not too bad considering it was the peak hour.

Morals of the story when it comes to dealing with License Raj:
- Be prepared to make multiple visits in case you missed something in the documentation - double check the documents in advance to reduce the chances of this happening.
- Avoid Saturdays if at all possible (don't bother coming if it is the 2nd Saturday); if you have to come on a Saturday, come early in the day.
- Be prepared to defend the queue - this is true anywhere in India. We desis have the line-cutting gene.
- I don't think an agent could have helped in the process. You have to be there anyway to sign electronically and I think you have be present for the inspection  also. There were people who looked like agents in the line; they had multiple stacks of forms and hogged time in the queue and were also more prone to line-cutting. If we avoided the middle-men, I think this process will be a lot saner.
 - And finally, don't forget those no. 2 pencils.

- Balaji

P.S. I am planning to drive this car until its last breath.