review: Was Funan a kingdom? Envoys who appeared in China said they came as representatives of the king of Funan. However, archaeological evidence suggests Funan was more like a loose federation of trading cities than a centralized kingdom. Nevertheless, there were rulers in Funan (though they may not have exercised authority over all of Funan), and they used Hindu- Buddhist ritual and rhetoric, as well as Sanskrit, to claim to get their subjects to recognize their right to rule. What is Indianization? It is the adoption of language, religion, art, and forms of government from India by peoples outside of South Asia. This means the building of Hindu-Buddhist temples and the use of Sanskrit in official government communications in order to gain political legitimacy. However, we don t see signs that the Indianization of Southeast Asia went beyond religion, art and government. The caste system of South Asia was not adopted by Southeast Asian societies. Southeast Asian remained culturally Southeast Asians. Who were the Chams? They were a Malay people living in what is now central Vietnam. They were sea-faring merchants, like their fellow Malays in what is now Indonesia. Who were the Khmers? They are known today as Cambodians. They were probably the dominant ethnic group in Funan as well as as Zhenla, which followed Funan. Which part of Southeast Asia was influenced by China at this time? Only northern Vietnam. It was actually a part of China. Questions to be answered Oct. 8: What was the relationship between the peoples of India and the peoples of Central Asia? (Trautmannn, p.65-68, 75; Davis, 32-40, 61-62) What was the difference between northern India and southern India? (Trautmann, p. 69, 84) What is the relationship between Vedic religion and Hinduism? (Trautmann, 70-72) What was the nature of classical Indian society? (Trautmann, 78-79) What is a caste? Are caste the same as varna? (See the Key Terms pages on the class website) Who were the Yuezhi? Were they Chinese? 1
What is the Ramayana? (Davis, 47-57 Can we talk about one India 1,500 years ago? (Trautmann, 84) Questions to answer while watching Michael Moore, BBC The Story of India, Part III, watched October 8, 2013 Cite as above if you cite the video in your term paper. Did India (South Asia) trade with the Roman Empire? What part of South Asia can we find the Tamils and their civilization? What was the most visible religion in the Kushana Empire? What is a stupa? (Also, see Trautmann, 64) The Kushan empire/ contact between India and China 2nd century BCE to 3rd century CE. North India after the fall of the Mauryan Empire: political fragmentation, exacerbated by incursions of peoples from north of Afghanistan. These peoples were probably mostly pastoral nomads, dependent on horses and sheep. They had the advantage of superior military technology: first there was the invention of the breast strap on a horse in the 4th century BC and then the stirrup in the 5th century A.D. That is when they became mounted archers. Of these invaders from Central Asia, the Kushan (there were a lot of movement in Central Asia because the unification of China in the 3rd century BC. had pushed a lot of nomadic tribes out of their usual territory) lasted the longest. The Kushan kingdom lasted until about 200 AD. But it covered much less territory in South Asia than the Mauryan empire did. Was based in Western Afghanistan and the Punjab, but later reached the Indus and Upper Ganges valleys. The Kushan were a Turko-Mongolian people, known as the Yuehzhi to the Chinese.. Their kingdom dissolved about 200 AD. The Yuezhi was a loose confederation of Indo-European peoples speaking versions of the Tocharian language. They were the easternmost Indo-Europeans, who had been living in the arid grasslands of the Tarim Basin in modern-day Xinjiang, until they were driven west by the Xiongnu in 176-160 BCE. (They were not Chinese) 2
What happened to them while they ruled India? They became Indianized. That meant, among other things, that they became Buddhists. It is under the Kushana Empire that we begin to see statues of the Buddha (Before that, the Buddha was not depicted in human form. Instead, a wheel was used as a symbol of Buddha s teachings.) So we can trace the multitude of statues in Mahayana temples, and the statues of Sakyumuni in Theravada temples, back to the Kushana. While they were in power, they served as a link between India and China along the Silk Road. That meant that they were partially responsible for transmitting Buddhism from India to China, including the notion of statues of Buddhas and Boddhisatvas. Though this is often called the Dark Ages of South Asia (because there was no strong kingdom with rulers who originated in South Asia), there were many important developments For example, we see during this time the beginnings of the turn toward devotionalism in what became Hinduism. Two gods in particular become objects of devotion, either personally or their avators. Those gods are Vishnu (Ram is his avatar) and Shiva (Avatars, by the way, provide a way to reconcile the distance we feel from a singular god, and the closeness we can feel to gods in a polytheistic universe. Avatars allow god to be both one and many.) With this shift toward particular gods, there was also a shift away from ritual toward devotional practices. There were also important classic texts produced during this period, including the Kamasutra, probably written about the 2nd century. The oldest extant medical manual in South Asia was also written in the 2nd century. It is also during this century that Sanskrit regained its position as the language of serious literature and philosophy. Map of the Kushan empire: http://www.worldhistorymaps.info/history/centralasia.html Scroll down to almost the bottom of that page. The Gupta empire/kingdom. 320--550. Their capital was in the same place the Mauryan had placed their capital. Unlike the Kushan Empire, the Gupta empire originated in the east, not the West, as battles with the Persians in the West had weakened the kingdoms there. However, it appears that the Gupta Empire did not have as centralized an administration, as effective a bureaucracy, as the Mauryan had. Nevertheless, the reach of Gupta control was broader, since the Gupta controlled not only trade routes and towns but also rituals and holy places of Hinduism. The Gupta realized that they had do do more than Ashoka did and simply erect pillars proclaiming the virtue of the ruler and the righteousness of his values. They actually funded temple construction and financed temple rituals, establishing ritual hegemony which reinforced their political and commercial hegemony. More moderate than the Mauryan empire. Took only 1/6 of the crop as taxes, and did not use capital punishment or tortune as much. 3
We know about Gupta India because of the plays of India s Shakespeare, Kalidasa, and from the reports of the Chinese monk Faxian It is in Gupta India that the Indian temple, centered on the image of a god, took its classic form. Also, this is when vegetarianism became the norm among the upper classes. The caste system become fully developed,and we now have evidence for untouchables. Gupta India also made advances in science and astronomy. India during this era are credited with the invention of a way of writing zero, and of calculating pi to four decimal places. In addition in 499, an Indian astronomers proposed that the earth was a sphere which rotated on its axis. Buddhism was still flourishing, but was starting to fade. We know about Gupta India from the account of the Chinese monk, Faxian, who traveled there and back. The Gupta were destroyed by the Huns out of Central Asia in 550 and India again reverted to a patchwork of rival kingdoms. http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/map22gup.htm for map of Gupta India Rajputs: a proud warrior group who emerged in the aftermath of Huna (Hun) invasions of northwestern India in the 5th and 6th centuries. They appear to be the result of Huns (from Central Asia) settling down and intermarrying with the local people. Their leaders became warriors and, in a few cases, brahmins. The followers of those Hun leaders became ordinary peasants. The Rajput became an important Hindu political force from the 9th century. (Trautmann, 75, 82) Ceylon and southern India. (Trautmann, 69-70) Southern India was sometimes caught up in the struggles among northern kingdoms but usually maintained its autonomy, with different kingdoms fighting among themselves for control of the south. Southern India had a different culture from the north--for example, they had only two varna (Brahmans and shudras) instead of four (they didn t traditionally recognize warriors and merchants as distinct castes). Also devotional religion was more popular here. One of the more interesting groups of people in the South are the Tamils. They had their own kingdoms, and their own writing system and literature. Early Tamil poems (from the 2nd century) tell us that they were then divided into castes based on geographic considerations (hill people, plains people, forest people, coastal people, and desert people). 4
Southern India and contact with Southeast Asia: It was primarily (but not exclusively) the people of southern India who engaged in trade with Southeast Asia, stimulating the formation of Indianized states in Champa and Funan. (Gujarat on the northwest coast also engaged in trade with Southeast Asia) Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. Evidence of writing by the 4th or 5th century BCE, and of coins by 275 BCE. Why where they so far ahead of the neighbors to the immediate north? According to the earliest Sinhalese tradition, recorded in the historical records (older than any from mainland South Asia), the first Indian colonists on Sri Lanka were Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers, who landed in the 5th century BC). They had been banished for misconduct from the kingdom of Sinhapura in northern India. This traditional account contains an element of historical fact--the settlement of Sri Lanka by Indo-Aryan tribes from North India. Indo-Aryan settlements grew in different parts of the island from about the 5th century BC. The settlers came in numerous clans or tribes; the most powerful were the Sinhalese, who eventually gave their name to the descendants of the various groups. There apparently was a state in Ceylon by the late 3rd century BCE, and that state was based on control of irrigation systems which made agriculture in the part of Ceylon it controlled very productive. The Tamils were probably later immigrants from Dravidian India, their migrations being spread out over a period dating from about the 3rd century BC to about AD 1200. Conversion to Buddhism According to Sinhalese tradition, Buddhism was first brought to Sri Lanka by a mission sent out under the patronage of the Mauryan emperor Asoka. The Sinhalese adopted it, but the Tamils were Hindus. The position of women Early India (pre-aryan) may have been matrilineal. Matrilineal inheritance patterns survived until recently in the southwestern state of Kerala. Which women were allowed the most autonomy and granted the most individual identity? Professional entertainers (prostitutes) and temple virgins (young girls left at temple doors as infants by families too poor to raise them). The temple slaves, as they are sometimes called, were the dancers for temple rituals. When do we have evidence for the solidification of a patriarchal society? By the Mauryan empire (The famous Laws of Manu were composed between the Mauryan and the Gupta eras) It got worse under the Gupta. Why did that happen? 5
The need to lessen the potential for inheritance disputes, a need for male warrior power, a greater need for long-distance travels by men, the influence of central Asian nomadic cultures,etc. Sati (suttee) is rather clear evidence of how low the status of women had fallen in northern India by the end of the Gupta era. Sati involves the widow of a recently deceased husband joining her husband on his funeral pyre and burning to death. Characteristics of the religious tradition we now call Hinduism: (Here I am relying heavily on An Introduction to Hinduism by Gavin Flood) Hinduism is a modern term, coined by the British colonial rulers of South Asia to distinguish the various indigenous religions traditions of India from Islam. It is not a coherent religion in the Western sense, but is more like a family of religions. There is no founder for Hinduism, no centralized administrative organization, no creed to which all Hindus must subscribe. Nor do all Hindus agree on what salvation means or how it can be gained, or on which writings are to be the most revered (though in general most Hindus accept the authority of the Vedas in theory). We will get back to Hinduism later (when we discuss Trautmann, chapter 7) For now, it is important to note that we see around the time of the Gupta Empire the rise of devotional religion to dominance in the religious life in India (though we can trace its roots to the Kushana empire). This is different from the Vedic religion of Brahmanic ritual and the Buddhist religion on renunciation. (Trautmann, 71) It is a theistic religion (focusing on gods) and emphasizes maintaining a special relationship with one or more gods through the regular offering of ritual gifts. It is this devotional religion, with temples and statues and family rituals, that we can Hinduism A relationship with the gods is maintained through puja, which is the ritual offering of gifts, such as food, incense, and flowers, to a deity. Such worship rituals are held in the family home, in temples, and in village shrines. Hinduism is not a congregational religion. In India Hindus do not normally come to their favorite temple at the same time each week to pray together, sing hymns together, and listen to sermons. Instead, even they they go to a shrine in groups, as they do on religious pilgrimages, they still see themselves as communing individually with the particular god they are offering gifts to or are praying to. Often worship takes place before a statue which is seen as possessed by the god being worshipped while that ritual is taking place. The three major supreme deities of Hinduism Hinduism should not be called monotheistic. To some Hindu philosophers, ultimate reality is indivisible. Therefore they can be no separate gods and human beings. This is monism, not monotheism. Most Hindus do worship one God as the Supreme God (though they differ on which God that is), but they also recognize the existence of other gods (this is henotheism) Some, especially in villages, simply accept the existence of many gods. This is polytheism. 6
Therefore, we can not call Hinduism monistic, monotheistic, henotheistic, or polytheistic, but we can say that it is all four. The most important Gods to Hindus for at least the last 1,000 years are three: Vishnu, who is often worshipped in the form of his avatars Krishna (the central figure in the Bhagavad Gita (Trautmann, 70-71)and Ram (the central figure in the Ramayana) Shiva, often depicted as the Lord of Yoga sitting in meditation, as a family man with a wife and two sons (one of whom is an elephant-headed god), as the lord of the dance (in which capacity he is shown dancing, or as a linga (a stone which is often described as representing a phallus and therefore creative power). Devi, the Goddess, who goes under a number of names, including Durga and Kali. Devi is also often viewed as a consort of Visnu or Siva or as a village deity. Notice that there is no large group within Hinduism dedicated to the worship of Brahma, the Vedic creator of the universe. Philosophical Hinduism, which often attracts Westerners, teaches that the true self is absolute reality. The self is the soul and is not to be confused with the body. If the self is reality, it is all that really is. All the rest is created by the self/mind and is really an illusion. Knowledge, however, can dissolve that illusion. This can lead to attempts to discipline the body and mind in order to gain full awareness of the true nature of reality. We call this discipline yoga. By controlling our breathing and our body, we control the mind and in so doing can overcome our own ignorance of what we really are. http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism.htm provides a general introduction to Hinduism in terms of how many people are Hindus, including figures for Canada. Social Structure Vedic Brahminism and Hinduism both classified people into hereditary groups based on their relationship to ritual-and how polluting their hereditary occupations were. Neither supported much individual social mobility. The doctrine of karma justified present day inequalities in social status and economic clout by blaming them on the thoughts and actions in past lives of people living now. Group social mobility was possible, if a jati changed its occupation and its eating habits, but a jati could not move up the social scale very quickly. It might take generations. Since social status was based on which jati you were a member of, individual social mobility was extremely difficult. Trautmann discusses the varna on p. 78: 1) priests and teachers, 2) warrior-rulers, 3) farmers, merchants, artisans, and landowners (those who generate wealth), and 4) servants (including tenants). Untouchables are outside the varna system, and below it. The first three varna are referred to as twice-born, meaning they have undergone a ritual that confers Hindu status on them and are entitled to study sanskrit (no one 7
else can do that) (does that mean, then, that servants are not considered Hindus? And what about untouchables, who are not even allowed into most Hindu temples? Are they Hindus? Together, servants and untouchable make up at least half of all the Hindus in India. However, a person s varna is less important in their daily life than their jati, which Trautmann misleadingly calls a sub-caste. Members of a jati members are forbidden to marry someone from another jati (though there are exceptions when a woman marries into a higher caste), or accept water or cooked food from anyone of lower caste status. The jati are both occupationally defined (though cultivators are divided into many different jati) and regionally based (a jati region would correspond to a linguistic or cultural region of a radius of maybe 100 kilometers or so). But occupation and region are not enough--they will be many jati in a region which is predominantly inhabited by peasants. Some jati may be the historical legacy of village or tribal differences in early South Asian history which survived in the form of different jati. Moreover, not everyone in, say, a barber jati will be a barber or everyone in a carpenter jati a carpenter. By the way, a recent book on India by one of the most distinguished Indian historians, Romila Thapar, prefers to confine the term caste to jati. She defines varna instead as referring to ritual status. Jati, on the other hand, is defined by her as a social segment identified by membership through birth, marriage circles, occupation, custom and location. (Early India, pp.512 and 514.) 8