Rewinding the Traditional Clock – Part III

Geography of Jambudwipa series:

 Are the Sanskrit sources relevant in understanding the Indus Geography?

Here I would like to quote Prof. Asko Parpola in a recent interview.

 “I think these two language families have been in contact with each other ever since the Indo-Aryan speakers entered South Asia. It is impossible to leave Indo-Aryan sources out of account. They have preserved very important information of Harappan heritage.”

Coming from an authority like Prof. Parpola, whose contribution to the understanding of Harappan script and culture is respected by the scholars cutting across the parochial and ideological boundaries, the statement supports the rationale of drawing clues from the Sanskrit tradition in understanding the geography of the civilization milieu.

Similarly, the Dravidian literature also must have retained some of the clues, if we agree to the possibility that multilingual populations had shared the same civilization.

Where else do we look for more clues?

The literary tradition aside, the subcontinent has a culture complex with a multitude of isolated populations which retained some common memories and legends that had not transcended the folk domain to be a part of the written tradition. 

Finally, the geographical map as viewed by the civilization was not a constant. Coming to Jambudwipa, if that was what we assume they called their land, it must have changed with the times and therefore requires a look in from different chronological view points. 

7^th Millennium BCE

Was the concept of Jambudwipa present in the 7^th millennium BCE?

Archaeology tells us that most of the early farming sites are concentrated in the upper river valleys of Hindukush range. If we look at the map, Quetta Valley has the largest concentration of sites. We know that the valley is situated on a natural highway between the subcontinent and the Levant. It is plausible that the early farming communities of the Levantine Crescent and the sites in the subcontinent are somehow connected. Prof. Colin Renfrew thinks that it was during this period that a Proto-IE language had spread with the establishment of these communities. If that was the case, the original IE people belonged to the earliest of these farming communities. Mehrgarh certainly is a candidate along with some of the Palestinian and Anatolian sites.

Now the question is, ‘Were they the Rig Vedic people?’

True, there were many common names and legends Rig Veda shares with those of the classical Mediterranean cultures. But those came about much later and any commonality is probably due to later dissemination. Further, the Assyrian and the Rig Vedic traditions are entirely distinct. There are a few shared events and legends like the much touted flood legend of circa 3100 BCE belonging to Post-Ubaid, Jemdet Nasr period.

Therefore, Rig Veda may not be helpful in understanding the early farming communities of 7^th millennium BCE. Secondly, we are not sure if these early farmers belonged to the same people or entirely independent of each other, even though those village sites looked functionally similar.

I am not trying to speculate on whether these cultures evolved indigenously or were planted by the migrants from the west. Archeologically, they were present in the Quetta Valley in the 7^th millennium. I am looking only at the fact that when these technologically advanced communities existed, there were many indigenous communities that coexisted who were at an earlier cultural phase. Topographically, most of these farming sites are found in river valleys at substantial elevation – at an average of thousand meters above mean sea level, Mehrgarh being the lowest at around 700 above msl.

The hunter gatherers that lived in the plains must have looked at these technologically advanced people with awe. Their technology – their ability to control the animals and plants – was probably considered some kind of superhuman magic. These people of the ‘High place’ were probably the catalyst for the origin of the Meru myth. Naturally, when in the latter days, a geographically cogent world view developed, this mythical High place became its center.

Etymologically, it can be argued that Meru is derived from the Dravidian root, ‘Mél’. Not surprisingly Mél in Tamil is associated with height and the cardinal west.  

Zhob in all probability was the focus of this nascent civilization of the super human people and is the same river ‘su-po-fa-su-tu’ (or Subha-vastu) as mentioned by Hsuen Tsang. This argument is consistent with my earlier post – Finding Mount Meru …

http://saipapineni.blogspot.in/2012/08/finding-mount-meru.html

This entire argument above presumes that the concept of Jambudwipa belonged to a later phase in the prehistory of the subcontinent. Therefore, let us look at the next phase in my time-list to understand the Jambudwipa as a concept.

4500 BCE – Atlanticum

Om Bhūr Bhuvar Swar …. Thus goes the Gāyatri mantra. The spiritual interpretation of this is not what I would touch upon. But the context in which the mantra is first uttered is when the person enters the community as an accredited member. Manu samhita says that Vyāhritis – the three mystical words to have been milked by the first man from the three Vedas – resulted in the three lokas: Bhūr, Bhuvar and Swar. In essence, Gayatri is a pledge of loyalty taken by the newly inducted citizen to the way of life as dictated by the God of Bhrigus, the original source of illumination. It was the energy of the Sun that had brought these three spheres into one body. Every member of this emergent Aryan community was bound by this pledge. 

It is a rather simplistic and materialistic interpretation, but the people of the early urban milieu were also simple people – still evolving into a syncretic community combining three streams of subsistence. Please see my earlier post … Rewinding the Traditional Clock – Part II 
 http://saipapineni.blogspot.in/2012/08/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

Let us look closely at the words – Bhū-r, Bhuva-r and Swa-r.

The suffix ‘ar’ always denoted people. It was probably derived from the Dravidian tradition. But many North Indian Jāti names also end with this suffix – Kumh-ar, Cham-ar etc.

Bhūr-loka became synonymous with the land, a plain on which the normal humans lived; while Bhuvar and Swar came to be known as some kind of celestial plains where the mythical superhuman beings like the gods existed. The rivers – Sindhu, Saraswati and Sarayu were the focus of this human habitat … 

Bhūr-loka

Let us start with the identification of this Bhūr-loka in the prehistoric archaeological milieu.

We know where Sindhu is.

Saraswati is no more a speculation.

But, Sarayu is an enigma. I would like to point at a Rigvedic legend much touted in later epics…

“It was on the banks of Harayūpiya, Indra killed hundred priests called Vrichivats”, says Rigveda. Rāmāyana mentions the legend of Viswāmitra killing a hundred of Vasishṭa’s sons at Hariyūpa. They were called Vālashikhas. Sudas killed a hundred Vaikarnéyas on the banks of the river Parushni. Vālashikhas, Varashikhas and Vaikarnéyas belong to Vāsishṭa gōtra. All these above legends allude to one single incident in the remembered past.

We know Parushni is the ancient name of Rāvi on whose bank we find Harappa. Therefore, it is possible that the original Sarayu/Harayu is none other than the river Rāvi.

The three principal rivers – Sindhu, Sarayu & Saraswati – were Indus, Rāvi and  Saraswati (whose upper tributary was Sutlej). The riparian map of Punjab probably looked like this…

It was here the first native agrarian communities had established themselves and called their habitat drained by the three rivers as Bhūr-loka. 

Bhuvar-loka

It was the land of the ancestors. Those, who were looked up to. There are two names that crop up – Vasus and Pitris.  Pitris is just a synonym for the ancestors. I have – in my earlier post – speculated upon the possible association of the original builders of Neolithic communities in the upper Zhob region with the Vasus.

 http://saipapineni.blogspot.in/2012/08/finding-mount-meru.html.

These inhabitants of Bhuvar-loka had reciprocal relationship with the dwellers of Bhūr-loka – as benefactors and receivers of annual tribute. 

Swar-loka

It’s called the abode of the gods. Rigveda calls it by the name ‘Divi’. Three sets of superhuman beings occupied this sphere in successive periods. They were Gandharvas, Asuras and Dévas. Clues to the identification of this region lay in the various legends about its original occupants – Gandharvas.

Who are they?

Rigveda calls them Divya Gandharvas, meaning Gandharvas of Divi. They are the beings of the night. They came in their winged craft with the background of setting sun, their amphorae filled with intoxicating Sura and rejuvenating ambrosia. Their women Apsaras accompanied them, the nymphs of water with floral garlands bouncing on their naked breast to their gyrations to the tunes of divine music of their lute playing singers. They are free spirits unrestricted by the norms that governed the common folk.

I want to draw a parallel … the experiences of those early explorers of 19^th century who described the islands of the South Pacific – the Polynesian society. We know from the anthropological sources that the early migration route taken by the native populations of the Pacific islands had passed through the subcontinent. Remnants of these cultures still exist among the hill tribes of the region – speakers of Munda language group. 

Legends have it that the Gandharvas were evicted from their original homes by the Asuras and they fled to the hills. The most populous Munda tribes are still known by names such as Khonds, Gonds etc. Ramayana recollects that the Lanka was ruled by Kubéra, the overlord of Gandharvas who had to relinquish his control to Rāvan and relocate himself at Alaka near Méru. Gandharvas and their women, Apsaras were the children of Nārāyana, the original ancestor who had his floating abode in the waters of Nāra. The dancing girl bronze of Mohenjodaro has strong Austric features. The early levels of Kot Diji, Dholavira, Amri and Chanhudaro show distinct polychrome designs, indicating a lively lifestyle, as compared to the staid unadorned pottery of the later phases. Divi is synonymous with ‘island’ in most Munda and Dravidian languages. Lanka is an island. ‘Ganda’ means ‘Man’ in many Dravidian languages.

All these point to a vibrant native culture that had existed in the lower Indus region – where the rivers split into a myriad of distributaries creating many islands and oxbow lakes – drawing subsistence from the bounty of the river. No wonder, the eastern stream of Indus delta is even today known by the name ‘Nāra’.

We may conclude that primarily these three streams of people – the three lokas – with distinct cultural backgrounds constituted the builders of the first urban civilization.

For now it should suffice to say that the idea of Jambudwipa came into being only after the integration of early Neolithic peoples into a singular urban culture and the resultant need for an identity as opposed to the Upper Paleolithic people that surrounded it. The Gāyatri mantra was instituted as an instrument of recruitment into this emerging culture.

The integration had taken place sometime later. The spark that had ignited this process and the resultant worldview that had developed will be discussed in my next post.  

Until then...

Rewinding the Traditional Clock – Part II

Rewinding the Traditional Clock – Part II

Geography of Jambudwipa Series

The Puranic king lists are by no means infallible. Even if we take the eighteen majors, there are enough inconsistencies to discard their evidence as flawed. However, Pargitar analyzed their contents thoroughly and pushed the dependability of king-lists to a date as early as 2200 BCE. Archeology places 2200 BCE at the zenith of Harappan civilization. If the Puranic content holds good up to that point, knowing that there existed a continuity of civilized life from the beginning of 4th century BCE in the core area of Indus-Ghaggar region, it is not unreasonable to assume 3100 BCE as the beginning of kingship in the region.

See… Rewinding the Traditional Clock – Part I

As stated earlier, before I attempt to understand the political geography of the region, I would like to continue with the process of identifying the markers on the chronological thread…

Circa 4500 BCE

Atlanticum:

Paleo-climatologists claim that in the mid fifth millennium BCE, a sudden cold and arid period came about and had lasted for a few centuries. Its effect was felt in the entire Near East, where isolated Neolithic human communities thrived. But, by around 4400 BCE, the flood plains of major rivers became the foci of nascent urban civilizations – the Nile, Euphrates & Indus. 

To understand this we need to take off our Indiana Jones’ sun hats and put the thinking caps of anthropologists. 

Let us look at the nascent subsistence processes – I mean – the basic sources of food for the communities that had learned to manipulate the environment. 

Cultivator – Upper Terraces

Herdsman – Plains

Fisherman – Rivers, Islands and Coast

Primitive cultivation occurred on high terraces fed by runoffs and mountain springs. While the herdsman roamed free in the plains and of course the fisherman lived near the rivers. Incidentally, Gāyatri hymn clearly differentiates three geographical loci – Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar. 

During the dry, cold and arid phase, which the climatologists call ‘Atlanticum’, the water table dropped and the mountain springs dried up. Probably, it had driven some of them closer to the perennial water sources. Exchange of ideas and material might have caused the rise of settled complex societies in river valleys. Plough, pack animals, manure, dykes and canals, boat, wheel … we can list many such innovations which appeared, in this area, around this period. 

As a logical extension organized socio-political processes, as we understand today, also must have had their beginning in these times. Other important contributor to the awareness of geography to grow was the process of surplus redistribution. Rivers and pack animals reduced distances expanding the habitat; and providing names and identities to the surrounding landscape is but natural. Probably it was the first time the conceptualization of Jambudwipa had occurred. 

Assuming that we are on the right track, we need to get the picture of the principal people/peoples who inhabited these river valleys; and try to identify that part of the traditional lore that matches those peoples. Any references to the others who lived beyond the pale of this core community may give us clues to the communities that preexisted. 

Was this process as smooth as I have shown? 

What were the adversities? 

ṚgVeda doesn’t initially label Asuras as some demonic foreigners but treats them as real native lords. And, the descriptions of Vritra, Hiranya Kasyapa, Bali, Taraka and his sons; and Sambara show them as kings of the cities which existed near major rivers. The people we are concerned with are those who had overcome these antithetical forces when they settled in the land of three principal rivers – Sindhu, Saraswati and Sarayu. 

Let me build a scenario – fraught with the danger of rubbing two juxtaposed ideologies on the wrong sides. In a way what I attempt is a middle ground that they do not want to approach. It is a risk, I am willing to take as I have no professional/academic boss to tell me … “You either fall in line or perish”. 

Let us assume that the availability of cattle and manure helped the cultivator to graduate from hoe based shift agriculture to settled farming in the flood plains. As a natural corollary he became the master of the surplus. He called himself the plough-wielder – after the local root for plough ‘Ar’. There are many cognates to this word in ‘agrARIAN’ terms – Area, Arable etc. The Dravidian ‘Ar’ (ploughshare), Araka (plough), Arisé (Rice). 

What is the earliest word in the world lexicon that implied ‘nobility’? Ārya!

He became the master of the … 

    Manor – Griha – Grihapati – Gahapati

    Land – Viś – Viś-pati – Vaiśya

While the land was communally held and immovable, cattle became an easily exchangeable commodity, or even a token of value. 

Social stratification is an essential ingredient for political power or to the rise of nobility. And, this nobleman had conceded equal status only to those who gave him protection – from the natural elements and the greedy neighbor – priest and warrior. New entrants were freely recruited into this community, and their skills determined their status. Those with the lowest bargaining power became the servants. 

A familiar scenario...

Its remnants survived into pre-Buddhist era in the tribal republics muddling the timelines. But, if we agree that a complex statecraft had existed during the Harappan context, the above scenario might have preceded it. Therefore, I propose to look for geographical clues associated with that social milieu – Agrarian ṚgVedic – for the period preceding the emergence of kingship and a unified urban civilization. 

Circa 6500 BCE

© www.harappa.com

There are multiple foci for the early Neolithic cultures that emerged in this region. Mehrgarh probably is the earliest as far as the archaeological evidence goes. If you look at the map of early farming cultures, most of them are concentrated in the hilly regions of Quetta Valley and the hills off Makran coast in Baluchistan. Few exceptions are Amri on lower Indus and Rehman Dheri on upper Indus. The early farming communities are generally to the west of the core civilization area. 

These were the people who carried the technology – that of domestication of plant and animal – and probably the language or languages that shaped the latter language families. Prof. Colin Renfrew asserts that Indo-European languages emerged in Levant and spread to the sub-continent along with the spread of Neolithic technology. It is a fair assumption, but – with due respect – if the Neolithic levels of Mehrgarh predate the sites like Catal Huyuk, Naveli Cori and Jericho; the opposite direction is equally possible. 

Assuming that the Neolithic peoples had arrived at the Meru from the west, Anabasis’ assertion that Dionysius arrived in 6363 BCE was probably based on the native memories of that event. 

In my earlier post, I have speculated on the location of Mt. Meru in the Hindukush range based on some mythical beliefs retained in the tradition and equated Vasus with early farming people. (Probably the reason for it to became fashionable by the Mahabharata times for the two leading lineages – Bharatas through Bhishma, and Yadavas – to claim their descent from these mythical Vasus.) See… Finding Mount Meru

There are other super-human beings that existed at the periphery of human habitat. Other than the two principal players, Devas and Asuras, there is a multitude of mythical beings – Yakshas, Gandharvas, Nagas etc. whose cultural attributes place them in upper Paleolithic milieu. Though the canvas of geographical references is wide and amorphous, there may be some specific clues for us to speculate upon.

The task, I must take up in my next post …