SOUTH & IN THE POST-CLASSICAL ERA, 600 CE – 1450 CE

SOUTH ASIA: ISLAMIC & HINDU KINGDOMS

Political centralization was not common in South Asian history. After the that had dominated collapsed in 550 CE, ending the so-called or Classical Era of Indian history, disunity returned to most of the region for most of the next 1000 years. Northern and southern developed separate political structures, while local rulers in all parts of the subcontinent created strong power bases for themselves. The power of local rulers made it difficult for centralized rule to exist, but easy for wars to occur. Not until the rise of the later in the sixteenth century would a single empire, and peace, dominate the area.

Political Structures in Southern India

Southern India was more stable than northern India. Two centralized governments did manage to succeed in overcoming political regionalism and fragmentation for periods after the fall of the Gupta. The first, the Chola Kingdom, reigned over southern India for more than 400 years (850 CE – 1267 CE). During the eleventh century, the kingdom extended its rule to Ceylon, the large island just south of India that is today known as . Its geographic location allowed its navy access to the waterways of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of . At the height of the Indian Ocean trade, the Chola kingdom’s ships were traveling as far east as the South China Sea, a distance of more than 3000 miles. The kingdom’s power began to wane when natives of Ceylon, who were ethnically Sinhalese, drove out the Chola invaders. This dealt a fatal blow to Chola rule, reducing it to a small-scale, regional kingdom. The second kingdom was in the northern region of southern India, known as Vijayanagar, a name that in English means “the victorious city.” Vijayanagar, had its roots when the Sultanate based in Delhi (which is discussed below) sent two brothers, Harihara and Bukka, to extend its rule to southern India. These brothers had been born as and converted to Islam for the sake of upward social mobility. When they left the region controlled by the , they took this opportunity to return to the religion of their birth and to establish their own kingdom. Vijayanagar existed from the mid-1300s until the mid-1500s, when a group of Muslim kingdoms overthrew it.

Political Structures in Northern India Northern India experienced a great deal more upheaval than did Southern India. While the protected India from invasions from the north and east, numerous mountain passes in the northwest allowed four separate invasions by Muslim . Each of these attacks created instability and disruption in a region that had been mostly Hindu and Buddhist. Over time, the Islamic presence in the region grew. One of the first invasions came in 711 CE. Soldiers from the Umayyad descended upon Sind, a region in northwestern India in present-day that included the Indus river valley. The incorporated Sind as a of their empire. However, Sind’s geographic location, on the eastern fringes of the dar al-Islam, kept it isolated from the seat of empire in Damascus. Its regional princes were also adept at wielding their local power when necessary, thus limiting the Muslim conquerors’ influence. Hindu authority was reasserted over much of Sind. At mid-century, along with most of the rest of the dar al-Islam, Sind passed into the hands of the Abbasid caliphs, at least nominally. A second invasion came three centuries later, and it had greater impact. Between 1001 CE and 1027 CE, Figure 1. A 14th century CE painting depicts the Turkic conqueror Mahmud of Ghazni as he dons a robe Mahmud of Ghazni led the bestowed on him as a gift by the Abbasid caliph. Although Mahmud pursued independent policies, he always Ghaznavid Turks of recognized the caliph as his overlord. Afghanistan in search of booty. Mahmud conquered the region, controlling much of what is present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the eleventh century, Mahmud’s armed forces plundered northern India’s Hindu temples and Buddhist shrines for their riches and erected mosques on Hindu and Buddhist holy sites. In 1025 CE, Mahmud infamously destroyed the great Somnath of , killing more than fifty thousand people who tried to defend it – actions that did little to endear Islam to the . Unsurprisingly, Mahmud’s efforts to convert Indians on a large scale did not succeed. However, his campaigns hastened the decline of in the land of its birth. Mahmud’s invasions opened this area of India to further invasions and migrations by Turkic Muslim groups. During the late twelfth century, Mahmud’s successors mounted a more systematic campaign to conquer northern India and place it under Islamic rule. By the early thirteenth century, they had conquered most of the Hindu kingdoms in northern India and established, under the Turkic general Qutb-ud-din- Aibak, an Islamic state known as Sultanate of Delhi (or Delhi Sultanate). The sultans established their capital at Delhi, a strategic site controlling access from the Punjab to the valley, and they ruled northern India, at least in name, for more than three centuries, from 1206 CE to 1526 CE. During the fourteenth century the sultans of Delhi commanded an of three hundred thousand, and their state ranked among the most prominent in the Islamic world. They built mosques, shrines, and fortresses throughout their realm. They were generous patrons of the arts and literature. Yet for the most part, the authority of the sultans did not extend far beyond Delhi. They often conducted raids in the Deccan region of southern India, but they never overcame Hindu resistance there. They had no permanent bureaucracy or administrative apparatus. Even in northern India, they imposed a thin veneer of Islamic political and military authority on a land populated mostly by Hindus, and they depended on the goodwill of Hindu kings to carry out their policies and advance their interests in local regions. Indeed, they did not even enjoy comfortable control over their own court: Of the thirty-five sultans of Delhi, nineteen perished at the hands of assassins. Nevertheless, the sultans prominently sponsored Islam and played a large role especially in the establishment of Islam in the Bengal region. The presence of Islam in northern India dominated the political history of the era. These “foreign” rulers may have created resentment among native Indians. For example, the Delhi Sultanate imposed jizya on all non-Muslim subjects of the empire. For some Indians, the tax was an incentive to convert to Islam. But despite the strong Islamic presence in the region, local kingdoms continued to play a major role in India’s decentralized political landscape.

MERCHANTS & ISLAM IN THE INDIAN OCEAN TRADE SYSTEM

While conquerors brought Islam to northern India, Muslim merchants took their faith to coastal regions in both northern and southern India. Arab and Persian mariners had visited Indian ports for centuries before Muhammad, and their Muslim descendants dominated trade and transportation networks between India and western lands from the seventh through the fifteenth century. Muslim merchants formed small communities in all the major cities of coastal India, where they played a prominent role in Indian business and commercial life. They frequently married local women, and in many cases they also found places for themselves in Indian society. Thus Islam entered India’s port cities in a more gradual but no less effective way than was the case in Sind. Well before the year 1000 CE, for example, the Gujarat region housed a large Muslim population. Muslim merchants congregated there because of the port city of Cambay, the most important trading center in India throughout the millennium from 500 CE to 1500 CE. Calicut, especially, became a bustling port city for merchants in search of spices from southern India. Foreign merchants from Arabia and China met in Calicut to exchange goods from the West and the East, respectively. Local rulers welcomed the presence of Muslim and Chinese merchants, as it brought the city wealth and prominence in the Indian Ocean Basin.

Specialized Products

As the Indian Ocean trade grew, so did the demand for specialized products. Every region involved in the trade had something special to offer their trading partners. • India became known for the high quality of its fabrics, particularly cotton textiles. In addition, merchants traveled to India in search of meticulously woven carpets as well as high-carbon steel (used for knives and swords), tanned leather, and artisan-crafted stonework. Merchants also sought pepper from India’s southern coastal cities. • Modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia, in southeast Asia, became known as the Spice Islands because of the fragrant nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom they exported. • The city-states of Kilwa, Mombasa, Mogadishu, and Zanzibar on the east coast of Sub-Saharan Africa (the Swahili Coast), exported slaves, ivory, and gold. • China exported , and Chinese porcelain became coveted worldwide, which is why people in the West still refer to their fancier dishes as “fine china.” • From southwest Asia (the Middle East) came carpets, horses, figs, and dates

Monsoon System & Sailing Technology

Knowledge of monsoon winds was essential for trading in the Indian Ocean. In the winter months, winds originated from the northeast, while in the spring and summer, they blew from the southwest. Thus, merchants had to time their voyages carefully, often remaining in port cities for months at a time, depending on when favorable winds would come their way. As a natural consequence, these merchants interacted with the surrounding cultures and people of the region. In fact, many Arab and East African merchants stayed in western Indian port cities permanently because they married the women they met there. Thus, these merchants from the dar al-Islam were the first to bring Islam to southern Asia, not through missionary work or conquest, but through intermarriage. Their children would generally be brought up as Muslims. Travelers needed ships capable of navigating the Indian Ocean’s winds. Arab sailors used sailing technology to aid their travel. It is debatable whether Arab sailors invented the triangular lateen sails that they used, but the sails were popular because sailors found that the triangular shape could easily catch winds coming from many different directions. Chinese sailors during the classical period had invented the sternpost rudder, which gave their ships more stability and made them easy to maneuver. Over time, merchants in the Indian Ocean built larger ships, which enabled them to ply the open ocean. The dhows, favored by Arab and Indian sailors, averaged about one hundred tons of burden in 1000 CE and four hundred tons in 1500 CE. After the naval and commercial expansion of the Tang and Song dynasties, large Chinese junks also sailed the Indian Ocean: some of them could carry one thousand tons of cargo. Trade facilitated the rapid spread of this sailing technology across the many lands bordering the Indian Ocean in this period.

RELIGION IN SOUTH ASIA

Religion has always held a dominant place in South Asian history, and the post-classical era was no exception. Prior to the arrival of Islam, the majority of South Asians practiced , while a smaller number identified themselves as Buddhists. South Asians encountered a starkly different religion when Islam arrived. While Hindus pray to many gods, Islam is strictly monotheistic. Hindu temples and artwork are replete with pictures of deities, while Muslims disapprove of any visual representation of Allah. While Hindus have a hierarchical caste system, Islam calls for the spiritual equality of all believers. Hindus interpret their religion loosely, in part because there are several sacred texts. Muslims need only look to the Quran for spiritual guidance.

The Arrival of Islam

The relationship between Hindus and Muslims has shaped the history of South Asia since the seventh century, and it continues to shape regional culture and politics today. Islam entered India both forcefully and peacefully. Mahmud of Ghazni destroyed Hindu and Buddhist shrines as he spread Islam. But while Islam was a proselytizing religion [meaning that it actively Figure 2. Qutub Minar, a 240 foot minaret built by Qutb-ud-din-Aibak, founder of the sought converts], Muslim rulers found early in Delhi Sultanate, in the 1100s CE. their reign that forcing their Hindu and Buddhist subjects to convert was not successful. Thus, most converts to Islam came voluntarily. As discussed, many Muslim merchants in the Indian Ocean trade moved to Indian port cities and married. Their wives often ended up converting to their husband’s religion. With its emphasis on the spiritual equality of all believers, Islam also attracted low-caste Hindus who hoped that conversion would improve their social standing. However, Hindus rarely improved their social standing by conversion. After conversion, they usually continued to play the same social and economic roles that they had before. The largest number of converts, however, were Buddhists. Corruption among the monks and raids on monasteries by early Muslim conquerors left the Buddhist religion disorganized. The spread of Islam helped make Buddhism a minority religion in its place of birth.

Interaction of Islam and Hinduism

The most successful messengers of Islam were Sufis, who converted large numbers of people to Islam. Sufis were mystics who did not focus on the strict doctrines of the religion, instead emphasizing an individual’s personal connection to a higher, divine power. Sufis even allowed converts to continue certain rituals not at all recognized by Islam. Their sincerity and openness to all faiths made Sufi mystics effective missionaries. Sufi missionaries attracted individuals searching for a faith that could provide comfort and meaning for their personal lives. Perhaps due to the popularity of Sufism, Hinduism began focusing on personal devotion to God. Devotional groups developed during this period. They focused on a person’s spiritual connection or devotion to an individual god, the lord or , for example. The cults became popular also because they preached personal salvation. Some Hindus also began to assimilate the Sufi veneration [honoring or demonstrating great respect for] of saints into their own religious lives without relinquishing their Hindu identity. In the twelfth century, the Bhakti Cult Movement emerged in southern India, emphasizing love and devotion to God. This movement was especially appealing to many believers because it did not discriminate against women or people of local social status. Because many Bhakti songs and poems were composed in regional languages, they were more accessible to the common people and became prominent expressions of popular culture in many areas. Mira Bai, a female poet of the sixteenth century, became one of the most famous figures of the Bhakti Movement. Her songs of devotion to the Hindu lord are still popular in India. The Bhakti movement gradually rejected the exclusive features of both Hinduism and Islam. Thus Guru Kabir (1440- 1518), a blind weaver who was one of the most famous Bhakti teachers, went so far as to teach that Shiva, Vishnu, and Allah were all manifestations of a single, universal deity, whom all devout believers could find within their own hearts. The Bhakti movement did not succeed in harmonizing Hinduism and Islam. Figure 3. A Sufi at the tomb of a 13th century Indian Sufi saint in Nevertheless, like the Sufis, Bhakti teachers promoted values that Kuliyar, India. helped to build bridges between India’s social and cultural communities.

SOCIAL STRUCTURES IN SOUTH ASIA

The arrival of Islam did little to alter the basic structure of society in South Asia. India’s caste system is its strongest historical continuity. While obviously equitable, it lent stability to a politically decentralized land. The caste system was quite flexible and able to accommodate newcomers. Muslim merchants and migrants, even though they were not Hindu, found a place for themselves within the caste hierarchy based on their occupation. These jatis, or subcastes, operated like workers’ guilds, soon becoming absorbed into the social fabric of Indian society. At the same time, most of those who tried to escape the grip of the caste system failed. The low-caste Hindus who converted to Islam as a way to improve their social status usually did not achieve that goal. Although they may have found spiritual peace with Islam, low-caste individuals required more education and opportunities for better jobs, not just a new religion, to help them escape their low status life. The Muslim influx had unfortunate consequences for women in both Muslim and Hindu communities. The invaders increasingly adopted the practice of marrying women at the earlier ages favored by the Hindus and the prohibitions against the remarriage of widows found especially at the high-caste levels of Indian society. Some upper “caste” Muslim groups even performed the ritual of sati, the burning of widows alive on the same funeral pyres as their deceased husbands, which was found among some high-caste Hindu groups. Sati had first appeared in India during the late-classical period of the Gupta dynasty. However, sati remained a cultural practice only within some areas of South Asia. It should be noted that as Islam spread, the ways in which it was practiced varied, depending on the cultures of the people who converted to the religion. Thus, converts in South and Southeast Asia found ways to accommodate a new faith, but most people did not abandon their time-honored traditions in the process.

CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN SOUTH ASIA

Indian cultural and intellectual achievements had a profound impact on the Islamic world. Indian scientific learning, particularly in mathematics, was translated into Arabic and helped shape Islamic advances in algebra and geometry. Mathematicians from India traveled to Baghdad to instruct the Abbasids on the finer points of Indian intellectual achievements, and Arab astronomers and mathematicians added to the body of knowledge begun by their Indian counterparts. The number system we now use, which is often referred to in the West as “Arabic numerals,” in fact originated among Indian mathematicians in the classical period. In India itself, sultans erected buildings melding the intricate artistic details of Hindu art with the geometric patterns preferred by Islamic architecture. The city of Delhi is replete with examples of Islamic architecture built during the Delhi Sultanate. One famous example, the Qutab Minar, still stands in the southern part of the city. Rulers from the Delhi Sultanate built an elaborate mosque on top of a Hindu temple, and used materials for the mosque from nearby Hindu and Jain temples. Towering over the mosque is the Qutab Minar itself, a gigantic leaning tower, the tallest structure in India today. Historians debate the reason for its construction; one obvious function is its presence as a symbol of Islamic influence and, at one time, dominance of northern India. An entirely new language developed among Muslims of South Asia: Urdu. It had influences from -based , as well as from Arabic and Farsi, a Persian language. Urdu takes the grammatical pattern of Hindi, spoken among North Indians, and melds it with much of the vocabulary of Arabic, with some Farsi as well. Spoken today, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan. Its elegant sounds work well with spoken literature and poetry, and its creation is a testament to the cultural interactions that took place within South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate.

SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE POST-CLASSICAL PERIOD

Just as China stood at the center of a larger east Asian society, India served as the principal source of political and cultural traditions widely observed throughout south and southeast Asia. For a millennium and more, southeast Asian peoples adapted Indian political structures and religions to local needs and interests. Although Indian armed forces rarely ventured into the region, southeast Asian lands reflected the influence of Indian society, as merchants introduced Hinduism, Buddhism, Sanskrit writings, and Indian forms of political organization. Beginning about the twelfth century CE, Islam also found solid footing in southeast Asia, as Muslim merchants, many of them Indians, established trading communities in the important port cities of the region. During the next five hundred years, Islam attracted a sizable following and became a permanent feature in much of southeast Asia.

The States of Southeast Asia

The lands of Southeast Asia – now the modern nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and to a lesser extent, Vietnam – were all heavily influenced by South Asia. Indian merchants had contact with these Southeast Asian lands as early as 500 BCE. The merchants introduced Indian goods such as gold, silver, metal goods, and textiles to the region and brought back its fine spices. Through trade, Southeast Asia was also introduced to the of Hinduism and Buddhism. The Hindu epics, and , were especially popular among the rulers of the first century to sixth century CE, because the epics served to reinforce ideas of kingship. These rulers – whose kingdom included parts of modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand – conducted royal business in Sanskrit and even adopted the Sanskrit word for king, raja, as a way to refer to themselves. Though most of their subjects worshipped local deities or spirits associated with nature, over time Hinduism came to be accepted in the larger culture. Funan rulers profited from the India-China trade by controlling a thin stretch of land on the Malay Peninsula that many merchants used as a shortcut between the two countries. The rulers extracted a fee from all traders who used it. The Funans developed an extensive irrigation system on their lands that helped increase agricultural production. The system was destroyed, however, after peoples from the north – the Chams and Khmers – invaded and occupied the Funan kingdom. During the post-classical period, several kingdoms attempted to control Southeast Asia, including the (670- 1025), Singosari (1222-1292), (1293-1520). However, the Angkor kingdom, also known as the Khmer, situated near the Mekong River, was the most successful of all. The reasons for Angkor’s success have been debated by historians. A leading theory states that the kingdom’s sophisticated irrigation and drainage systems led to greater economic prosperity. Irrigation allowed farmers to harvest rice crops several times a year, and drainage systems reduced the impact of the heavy monsoon rains. The Angkor kingdom lasted for more than 500 years (889-1431) controlling land in what is now Cambodia. Its capital was Angkor Thom. The royal monuments of Angkor Thom are evidence of Indian cultural influences on Southeast Asia. Founded by rulers in the eighth century with the help of Indian advisors, the city of Angkor Thom was built to house the king and display the grandeur of his rule. Hindu artwork and sculptures of Hindu gods abounded in the royal city. Building resumed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when Khmer rulers, who had become Buddhist, added Buddhist sculptures and artwork to the complex without destroying any of the Hindu artwork. The entire complex covered about two square miles and was surrounded by a large moat. During the same period, the ornate and majestic Buddhist temple complex of Angkor Wat was constructed, one-half mile from Angkor Thom. In 1451, the Thais invaded the area, forcing the Khmers out. Nevertheless, ruins of the magnificent structures in Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat still stand, testifying not only to the greatness of Southeast Asian culture but also to the powerful influence of Indian culture on the region.

Figure 4. Angkor Wat, Buddhist temple complex in Cambodia

The Arrival of Islam

Muslim merchants had ventured into Southeast Asia by the eighth century, but only during the tenth century did they become prominent in the region. Some came from southern Arabia or Persia, but many were Indians from Gujarat or the port cities of southern India. Thus Indian influence helped to establish Islam as well as Hinduism and Buddhism in Southeast Asia. As in most of the areas to which Islam spread, peaceful contacts and voluntary conversion were far more important than conquest and force in spreading the faith in Southeast Asia. Throughout the islands of the region, trading contacts paved the way for conversion. Muslim merchants and sailors introduced local peoples to the ideas and rituals of the new faith and impressed on them how much of the known world had already been converted. Muslim ships also carried Sufis to various parts of Southeast Asia, where they played as vital a role in conversion as they had in India. The first areas to be won to Islam in the late 13th century were several small port centers on the northern coast of Sumatra [an island of modern-day Indonesia]. From these ports, the religion spread in the centuries that followed across the Strait of Malacca to Malaya.

Malacca

During the fifteenth century, the spread of Islam gained momentum in Southeast Asia, largely because the powerful city-state of Malacca [also written as Molucca or Melaka] sponsored the faith throughout the region. Founded during the late fourteenth century, Malacca took advantage of its strategic location in the Strait of Malacca, near modern Singapore, and soon became prominent in the trading world of Southeast Asia. During its earliest days, Malacca was more a lair of pirates than a legitimate state. By the mid-fifteenth century, however, Malacca had built a substantial navy that patrolled the waters of Southeast Asia and protected the region’s sea lanes. Malacca’s fleets compelled ships to call at the port of Malacca, where ruling authorities levied taxes on the value of their cargoes. Thus, like Southeast Asian states of earlier centuries, Malacca became a powerful state through the control of maritime trade. In one respect, Malacca differed significantly from the earlier states. Although it began as a Hindu state, Malacca soon became predominately Islamic. About the mid-fifteenth century, the Malaccan ruling class converted to Islam. It welcomed theologians, Sufis, and other Islamic authorities to Malacca and sponsored missionary campaigns to spread Islam throughout Southeast Asia. By the end of the fifteenth century, mosques had begun to define the urban landscapes of Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula, and Islam had made its first appearance in the spice-bearing islands of Maluku and in the southern islands of the Philippine archipelagos. This progress of Islamic conversion shows that port cities in coastal areas were particularly receptive to the new faith. Here, trading links were critical. Once one of the key cities in a trading cluster converted, it was in the best interest of others to follow suit to enhance personal ties and provide a common basis in Muslim law to regulate business deals. Conversion to Islam also linked these centers, culturally as well as economically, to the merchants and ports of India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

Sufi Mystics & the Nature of Southeast Asian Islam

Because Islam came to Southeast Asia primarily from India and was spread in many areas by Sufis, it was often infused with mystical strains and tolerated earlier animist, Hindu, and Buddhist beliefs and rituals. Just as they had in the Middle East and India, the Sufis who spread Islam in Southeast Asia varied widely in personality and approach. Most were believed by those who followed them to have magical powers, and nearly all Sufis established mosque and school centers from which they traveled in neighboring regions to preach the faith. In winning converts, the Sufis were wiling to allow the inhabitants of island Southeast Asia to retain pre-Islamic beliefs and practices that orthodox Islamic scholars would have found contrary to Islamic doctrine. Pre-Islamic customary law remained important in regulating social interaction, whereas Islamic law was confined to specific sorts of agreements and exchanges. Women retained a much stronger position, both within the family and in society, than they had in the Middle East and India. For example, trading in local and regional markets continued to be dominated by small-scale female buyers and sellers. In such areas as western Sumatra, lineage and inheritance continued to be matrilineal [descent traced through the female line] after the coming of Islam, despite its tendency to promote male dominance and descent. Perhaps most tellingly, pre-Muslim religious beliefs and rituals were incorporated into Muslim ceremonies. Animism and ancestor worship, widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia, were easily absorbed into the new religious beliefs and practices of Islam – a classic case of religious syncretism. This religious flexibility can also explain the general religious tolerance found in the islands of southeast Asia.

Limits of Islamic Conversion in Southeast Asia

Islam made slow progress in areas such as central Java, where Hindu-Buddhist dynasties contested its spread. But the fact that the earlier conversion to these Indian religions had been confined mainly to the ruling elites in Java and other island areas left openings for mass conversions to Islam that the Sufis eventually exploited. The island of Bali, where Hinduism had taken deep root at the popular level, remained largely impervious to the spread of Islam. The same was true of most of mainland southeast Asia, where centuries before the coming of Islam, Buddhism had spread from India and Ceylon and won the fervent adherence of both the ruling elites and peasant masses.