Epic India, Or, India As Described in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
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INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN THE MAHABHARATA THE RAMAYANA C.V. VAIDYA EPIC INDIA OR INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN THE MAHABHARATA AND THE RAMAYANA C. V. VAIDYA ASIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES NEW DELHI * MADRAS * 2001 ASIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES * 31, HAUZ KHAS VILLAGE, NEW DELHI -110016 Tel 6560187,6568594 Fax 011 -6852805, 6855499 e-mail asianeds@nda vsnl net.in • 5, SRIPURAM FIRST STREET, MADRAS - 600 014, Tel : 8115040 Fax 8111291 e-mail asianeds@md3 vsnl.net.in Pricf First uunoitcu Dumoay, 1907 AES Reprint New Delhi 2001 ISBN 81-206-1564-6 Published by J Jetley for ASIAN EDUCATIONAL SERVICES 31. Hauz Khas Village, New Delhi - 110 016 Processed by AES Publications Pvt Ltd New Delhi-110 016 Printed at Chaudhary Offset Process. DELHI - 110 051 INSCRIBED TO HIS HIGHNESS jjjailurad OF BARODA. SENAKHASKHEL, SAMSHER-BAHADUR, 6'. C. S. /.. IN RESPECTFUL ADMIRATION OF HIS HIGHNESS' SINCERE LOVE AND GENEROUS PATRONAGE OF LEARNING. PREFACE. In this volume is placed before the reader, the third and the last instalment of my views on the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, as contemplated in the preface to my first book 11 The Mahabharata: a criticism.” I have called this book by the name of Epic India as it attempts to describe the social, political, intellectual and religious condition of the country during the epic period, from such information as is available to us in these two epics. I have also laid under contribution for corroborative evidence, the Upanishads on the one hand, composed as they were about the beginning of that period and Manusmriti and the writings of Megasthenes and other Greek authors which belong to its end. The epic period, according to my view, extends roughly speaking, from 3000 to 300 B. C. as the Mahabharata war was in my opinion fought in 3101 B C. the original Bharata being com¬ posed not very long after that event; and the Mahabharata was last recast about 250 B. C. at least unquestionably after Megasthenes and before Ashoka. If we take the latest dates assigned to these events viz., the Mahabharata war and the last recasting of the Mahabharata the epic period still extends over about a thousand vears from 1200 to 200 B. C. VI PREFACE. In arriving at my views about the condi¬ tion of India° in this period, I have tried as far as possible to avoid two tendencies, the tendenev on the one hand so natural to many native scholars, to look upon the least devia¬ tion from accepted ideas as monstrous, and the tendency on the other hand so unaccount¬ ably observable among many European scholars to look upon every thing written by the Brahmins as suspicious and even untrue. How far I have succeeded in steering clear of these Scylla and Charybdis of Indian anti¬ quarians, it is for the reader to judge. In this book I have thrown all the Sanskrit quotations into foot-notes and given their translation where necessary in the body of the book. Names again have always been given in English characters ; but they have also been shown in Devanagari characters in brackets where necessary to ensure proper pronunci¬ ation. The appending of a map and an Index mav lastly be noticed and will be found useful. Now that the task which I had laid before myself is over, I can not conclude without ex¬ pressing my deep sense of gratitude to His Highness the Maharajah Sayajirao Gaikwad ol Baroda, but for whose encouragement and princely support I could not have placed before the public, the results (of such value as they mav possess) of mv study of the two venerable epics of India. Bombay, December iQoy. C. V. Vaidya. CONTENTS. Page. Chapter I—Race ... ... ... ... 1 »* II”*Caste ... ... ... ... 48 >> Ill—Marriage . 83 >> IV—Physique and complexion ... 105 "\ —Food ... ... ... ... y > 117 1 y VI—Dress and decoration 139 it VII—Manners and Morals 159 yt VIII—General Political Condi- TION • •• ••• ••• ••• 180 tt IX—The Court and the Palace 198 »> X—Civil Government (a) Revenue Administration 209 (b) Judicial ,, 223 > 1 XI—Trade and Industries ... 231 y y XII—Foreign Relations and the Military . 244 tt XIII—Geographical knowledge. 268 »» XIV—Astronomical Knowledge... 3i4 it XV—Language and Literautre 330 it X VI—Religion ... ... ... 344 XVII—Philosophy .369 XVIII—The life and teaching of Shrikrishna ... ... 414 Vlll CONTENTS. APPENDIX. Page. Note No. I—Hiouen Tsiang’s Descrip¬ tion of India and the Indians . 477 )) ,» II—The Peoples or clans of India at the End of the Epic Period. 482 »> „ III—Yavanapura or the town of the Greeks . 4S5 »» „ IV—Geography of India in Kalidasa ... ... ... 486 >» V—Story of Janaka and SuLABHA . 487 » m VI—Systems of Indian Phi¬ losophy . 492 »» ^ II—Genealogy of Shrikrishna 495 »» » VIII—The Date of the Bhagavad- gita 497 Index ••• ••• ••• ... ... ... 507 ERRATA Page Line 3 26 for Vedidad read Vend id ad. 32 32 * > Vlhramaditya yy Vikramaditya 45 18 yy Kacliha was yy Kachhavahas 46 4 yy belt India yy belt of India 75 4 yy surported yy supported 86 4 yy climets yy climes 101 26 yy whereever yy wherever 126 25 yy avoied yy avoided 131 17 yy period* yy period »» 23 yy ♦The yy The 140 28 yy if yy of 142 4 yy neither yy nether 142 22 yy gambaled yy gambled 144 2 yy worne yy worn 152 19 yy worno yy worn 178 25 y y nor, yy nor 107 2 yy Santiparva yy Shantiparva 209 17 yy Ths yy The 238 12 y y Yudhishtihira y y Yudhishthira 247 a yy achiveed yy achieved 248 n yy various yy Various 251 20 yy que yy qua 259 28 yy imaginery yy imaginary. 261 12 yy description yy descriptions. 263 10 yy severly yy severely 269 19,20,21 yy Jumbu yy Jambu 284 20 yy Mahishavati yy Mahishmati. 295 30 yy habitants yy habitats. 307 33 yy the hill y y one hill. 310 19 yy Kritikas yy Krittikas. #10 23 yy There yy These 315 16 y y Nakshatra yy a Nakshatra. 315 25 yy Kaurvas yy Kauravas. 332 21 yy Dramas yy dramas. ii ERRATA. 343 10 for expending read expanding. 302 13 i y tedecics 99 tendencies. 303 4 99 though 9 9 through 363 20 91 Yuddhishthira 99 Yudhishthira. 304 17 9 9 ditto 99 ditto. 304 30 99 boll 99 hell. 366 21 99 sinsful 99 sinful 394 17 99 Sutra 99 Sutra of 409 18 99 be little 99 belittle 427 29 99 Killed 99 killed. 434 30 99 adrcss 99 address. 446 15 99 Yoya 99 Yoga 458 25 99 calles 9 9 calls. 404 27 99 Shatras 99 Shastras. 473 34 99 cnc- 99 con- 488 31 99 tho 99 thy 490 40 #9 hundores 99 hundreds 493 28 99 those 99 that 409 11 99 Brahmsutras 99 Brahmasutras EPIC INDIA. CHAPTER I. Race. The anthropometrical labours of Sir H. Risley in connection with the last census report of India for 1901 have dispelled for all time to come the doubt which was often entertained as to whether there was any Aryan population at all in this vast country of diverse races. We are now assured that language and literature have not deceived us so long ; that philologists have not in vain, by their labours of the last century, classed the Sanskrit with the Persian, the Greek, the Latin, the German and the Scandinavian language as a member of the same family group of languages ; that the students of the Rigveda, the oldest hymn-book in the world, have not created a myth of their own, when they discovered in it the traces of an Aryan people entering India through the north-west and conquering the Punjab. In fact theories like that of Mr. Nesfield which denied the truth of the “modern doctrine which divided the population of India into Aryan and aboriginal” and which saw no difference in race and blood between the “ high class students” of the Sanskrit College at Benares and “the scavengers 2 EPIC INDIA. who swept the road ” have been set at rest for ever. That most valuable chapter which Sir H. Risley has contributed to the census report of India for 1901 on caste, tribe and race has shown conclusively from anthropometrical measurements taken throughout India that the population of India does contain a very large Aryan element. He divides India into seven compartments one of which comprising the Punjab, Kashmere and Rajputana is almost wholly populated by the Indo-Aryan race. The next compartment as shown in his map comprises a large part of the present United Provinces and Bihar and contains a population which he looks upon as Aryo- Dravidian or a mixture of Aryan and Dravidian races. In lower Bengal and Orissa there is a Mongolo-Dravidian population, “probably a blend of Dravidian and Mongolian elements with a strain of Indo-Aryan blood in the higher groups.” Fourthly comes the Dravidian type “which extends from Ceylon to the valley of the Ganges and pervades the whole of the Madras Presidency, Hyderabad, the Central Provinces, most of Central India and Chota Nagpur. Fifthly and lastly come the western portions of India including Gujarat, the Maharashtra and the country lower down as far as Coorg and containing, according to Sir H. Risley, a population which is a mixture of Scythian and Dravidian elements. These together with the Turko-Iranian population in Baluchistan and the north-west frontier province and the pure Mongolian people of Nepal, Assam and Burma form the very inter¬ esting and scientific sevenfold division of the peoples of India based on anthropometrical measurements.