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Concepts, Ideas and Terms 1 Concepts,Ideas and Terms Thename Bharatvarsha Bharatvarsha wasgiventothewhole According to the scriptural description of the Brahmand, the entire Earth is called Bharatvarsha but particularly, the area of the continent that lies South of the countryafterthenameof Himalayas is called Bharatvarsha. It is also called Aryavarta. The inhabitants of ancienttribe calledthe AryavartaarecalledAryansasreferredintheRigVeda. Bharata andthepeople Thus, the words Bharatiya or Aryans were both used for the inhabitants of Bharatvarsha or Aryavarta. Persians used to call Hindu for the Sindhu river and werecalled thus, Hindustan came into being. The English called the river Sindhu, Indus and thus Bharatasantati.Our theEnglishnameforHindustanbecame India. ancientpoets, Sabha and Samiti philosophers A very striking feature of the Rigvedic polity was the institution of two political units known as the Sabha and the Samiti. The Sabha was a body of elders and was and writers viewedthe attended by persons of noble truth — Brahmanas and rich patrons. Judicial matters countryasan were decided by the Sabha and it was as important as the Samiti. The Samiti was an ordinary assembly of the tribe and its members were called Visha. The king integral unit.They attended the Samiti and the most important work of the Samiti was to elect the spoke oftheland king. Justice was based on dharma and the king was the head of the judicial set up. The village head, Gramin led the villagers in time of war and attended the stretchingfromthe meetingsofthe Sabha and Samiti. Himalayasto thesea,as Varnasrama theproperdomainofa The Sanskrit word Varna means colour and suggests the origin of the four classes, singleuniversal monarch. priest (Brahmana), warrior (Kshatriya), peasant (Vaishya) and serf (Sudra) in the development of the old tribal class structure, through contact with people of differentcomplexionandalienculture. Asrama or Stage of life The life of an individual Aryan was divided into four stages : (Brahmacharya); on his investiture with the sacred thread and leading a celibate 1 4 UGC NET Tutor History and austere life as a student at the home of his teacher, DoctrineofKarma next having mastered the Vedas, he returned to his The doctrine, according to which actions have parental home and was married, becoming a householder consequences, that manifest themselves in present and (Grihastha), when, well advanced in middle age, he left future lives. Jaina doctrine holds that jivas (souls) his home and went away to the forest to become a hermit transmigrate due to Karma, but its ideas of (Vanaprastha); by meditation and penance, he freed his transmigration and karma are unique. Karma is soul from material things, until, atlast a very old man he understood as consisting of material particles floating left his hermitage and became a homeless wanderer about in space. Karmic matter is of different kinds – some (Sanyasin) withallhisearthlytiesbroken. havedirectlynegativeeffectson jiva andothersdonot. A special group of Sanskrit texts dealing specifically with dharma (righteous conduct) are collectively known as Dandaniti/Arthashastra Dharmashastras. It recognises three sources of dharma: Dandaniti, the administration of force, or rajaniti; the Shruti (the Vedas), Smriti (the Smriti texts) and conduct of kings, was a severely practical science and the Sadachara (good custom and practices of the learned texts curiously dismiss the more philosophical aspect of people). A person’s dharma depends on gender, age, the state and the conduct of governmental affairs. The marital status, varna and ashrama. The four varnas are earliest and most important text book specifically devoted Brahmana,Kshatriya, Vaishya andSudra. to state-craft is the Kautilya’s Arthashastra, which is The first three are referred to in the Brahmanical tradition attributed to Kautilya, the famous Minister of Chandragupta Maurya. as Dvija (twice-born) as they alone have the right to the sacred—thread ceremony, which is considered similar to a Saptanga second birth. The ashrama system went through several stages of development and ultimately divided the life of a (Literally Meaning the Seven-Limbed State) dvija male into four stages: brahmacharya, grihasta, The Arthashastra is the first Indian text to define a state. vanaprastha and sanyasa. Its concept of saptanga rajya considers the state as consisting of seven inter-related and inter-locking Purusharthas constitutional limbs or elements (angas) Swami (the lord), Amatya (the ministers), Janapada (the territory and In Hinduism, purushartha (that, which is sought by man) the people), Durga (the fortified capital), Kosha (the refers to a goal, end or aim of human existence. There are treasury), Danda (justice of force) and Mitra (ally). The generally considered to be four such purusharthas namely : idea of saptanga rajya was accepted with minor Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. modifications in many Dharmashastra texts, the Puranas Samskaras andthe Mahabharata. The Dharmashastras describe the samskaras (literally Dharmavijaya preparation or arrangement) as rituals marking important (LiterallyMeaningLawfulConquest) stages of life such as Upanayana (initiation), Vivaha Dharmavijaya did not involve the absorbtion of the (marriage)and Antyeshti (funeraryrites). conquered kingdom, but merely its reduction to vassal status. Though, many later kings, such as Samudragupta According to the texts, there were some 40 ceremonies ignored the sacred law and incorporated conquered (samskara), which covered the whole life of a man from his kingdoms into their empires, custom was against this conception to his death; some of these were of great practice. importance and were performed by all respectable membersoftheAryanCommunity. Stupa/Chaitya The term chaitya means a sacred space, but is more Yajna specifically used to refer to Buddhist shrines. Many of the In Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the early Buddhist cave shrines contained a stupa as the object of veneration and large independent stupas soon practice in Vedic times. Yajna is a ritual of sacrificing and came to form an integral part of Buddhist monastries. The sublimating the hawana samagri (herbal preparations) in stupa represented many things in Buddhist tradition. It thefireaccompaniedbythechantingofVedicmantras. stood for the axis mundi (the centre of the universe), it 2 Concepts,Ideas and Terms 5 symbolised the parinibbana (the passing away of the MemorialStones Buddha) of the Buddha, it was a repository of relics of the The erection of memorials to honour the dead is an Buddha and it was also a place of veneration, worship and ancient and worldwide phenomenon. The memorials pilgrimageformonksandlaity. took different forms in different countries and times. In Nagara/Dravida/Vesara Tamil Nadu, the act of erecting memorials gets its firm foot in the megalithic culture. The gradual transformation • Nagara Style The Northern style of temple of the megalithic cult into the hero cult is reflected in architecture, marked among other things, by a Sangam literature. The rituals for erecting hero-stones curvilinear shikhar (tower). (Nadu kal) are also mentioned in Tamil grammatical • Dravida The Southern style of temple architecture, works. Specimens of hero-stones are available only from marked among other things, by a pyramidal shikhara 6thCEonwards. (tower). • Vesara A style of temple architecture, which has a Agraharas blend of elements associated with the Nagara and Agraharas is the name given to the Brahmin quarter of a Dravida styles,alsoreferredtoas Karnata-Dravida. heterogenous village or to any village inhabited by Brahmins. These were gifted to the Brahmanas by the Bodhisatva/Tirthankara king. Agraharas were also known as Chaturvedi-mangalams (Bodhisatva orFutureBuddha) in ancient times. Agraharas at times blossomed into The most direct implication of Mahayana ideas at the centres of traditional education and are well described in level of popular practice was the worship of Buddha and the ancient literary works and in the inscriptions of the Bodhisatvas in the form of images in shrines. The older various kings. Sometimes two or more agraharas were Buddhism had considered the veneration of stupas and joined together to create a larger one, which was then relicsmeritorious,butnotessential. renamed. Mahayana attached great importance to devotion to the Khilafat Movement Buddha and Bodhisatvas. Tirthankara is another word for The Khilafat Movement (1919-1924), was a pan-Islamic jina and means ford-builder i.e., one, who builds fords, that political protest campaign launched by Muslims, in help people across the ocean of suffering. The word Jaina British India, to influence the British Government, to means follower of jina, which means victor, a person, who protect the Ottoman Empire during the aftermath of First has attained infinite knowledge and teaches others how to World War. This was an attempt by the Indian Muslim attain moksha, i.e., liberationfromthecycleofrebirth. Community to unite together in support of the Turkish Kara/Vishti empire, ruled by the Khalifa, which was attacked by European powers. The Muslims considered the Khalifa as Kara has been interpreted as regular revenue, periodical the custodian of Islam. The Khilafat Movement was tax or oppressive tax like vishti or forced labour, organised by the Ali Brothers, (Mohammad Ali and prevalentduringpost-Guptaperiod. Shaukat Ali against the injustices) done to Turkey (which Stridhana had fought against the British) after the First
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