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Varāhamihira
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Accessed: 11/17/24

I. Varahamihira’s Time

Unfortunately, there is considerable divergence of opinion regarding his date. The Jyotirvid-abharana (XXII. 10), professedly composed by the celebrated Kalidasa, the author of the three poems (XXII. 19-20) and a court-poet of the traditional Vikramaditya of the first century B.C., includes Varahamihira among the nine gems of Vikramaditya’s court. If we were to believe in this tradition, Varahamihira will have to be placed in the first century B.C.10 However, besides the inferiority of this work to Kalidasa’s known compositions, the text contains sufficient evidence to prove that it is a very late forgery attributed to Kalidasa with the ulterior motive of popularising it. It mentions in a prophetic fashion the Salivahana-Saka (or the well-known Saka era of 78 A.D.) which commenced 135 years later than the Vikrama era. (X. 110-112). On the basis of certain astronomical details contained in this work historians of Indian astronomy like Sudhakara Dvivedi 11 and S.B. Dikshit 12 are inclined to date its composition in about 1242-43 A.D., while on some other considerations Keith 13 and H. Kern 14 bring it down to so late dates as the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries A.D.

Strangely enough and against the usual practice prevalent among ancient Indian astronomers, Varahamihira himself gives absolutely no indication about his date. In his Panca-siddhantika, however, he refers to the Saka year 427 15 which, following the common vogue, may be taken as the date of the composition of this work or very near it when he began planning it. 16 The Saka-kala is usually taken to refer to the well-known Saka era with its epoch in 78 A.D., and accordingly Saka-kala 427 should be regarded as equal to 105 A.D.

However, as certain statements of Varahamihira in connection with the Saka-kala go against the common notion regarding the date of the Bharata war, 17 some scholars are inclined to identify it with the so-called Cyrus era or the Buddha Nirvana era. But these views are totally against established historical and textual norms, and if we were to accept them, Varahamihira would have to be placed in the second-first centuries B.C. This date, however, is irreconcileable with his reference to Aryabhata 18 who was born in 476 A.D. and composed his work under reference twenty-three years later in 499 A.D. In view of this and other considerations, these theories are totally untenable. 19 Some other scholars have proposed to equate Varahamihira’s Saka-kala with the famous Vikrama era with its epoch in 57-58 B.C. As we have shown elsewhere in this volume, 20 this opinion is as, if not more, untenable as the two other theories on the subject. It also does not go well with allusion to Aryabhata as in this case also Varahamihira would have to be dated a few decades prior to the former’s birth. Therefore, we are left with no alternative but to regard Varahamihira’s Saka-kala, Sakendra-kala and Saka-bhupa-kala as identical with the famous Saka era beginning in 78 A.D. The view also goes well with what Alberuni has to say regarding Varahamihira’s time. Writing his Indian account in 1030 A.D. he states that this year corresponded to the year 526 of the era of the canon Panca-siddantika. He further adds that Varahamihira flourished 525 or 526 years before his own time. These statements, which are clearly based on the mention of Saka-kala 427 in the Panca siddhantika, would be simply unintelligible if the Saka-kala of Varahamihira were to be identified with any other era than the well-known reckoning of this name with its epoch in 78 A.D. 21 The particulars of the date given by Varahamihira (Caitra sukla pratipada, Saka 427) agree with Sunday-Monday 20th-21st March, 505 A.D. 22

However, some scholars doubt if 505 A.D. could really be the date of the composition of the Panca-siddhantika as according to a statement of Amaraja in his commentary on Brahmagupta’s Khanda-khadyaka Varahamihira died in Saka 509 or 587 A.D. (nav-ahika-panca Sata-sankhya-Snke Varahamihir-acaryo divam gatah). It has, therefore, been suggested by a few scholars that it may refer to some important event in Varahamihira's own life like his birth. 23 However, the veracity of this passage has been doubted by competent authorities, as it is not certain if this statement is in verse or prose and whether it has come down to us in its original form through about a thousand years that have elapsed since its composition. 24 But even if we were to take it as authentic, it should not cause much difficulty as it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Varahamihira began his literary activities at a young age of twenty or twenty-five when he composed or began his calculations for the Panca-siddhanika in 505 A.D., and passed away in 587 A.D., at the rather exceptionally high age of about 105 or 110, which, though very uncommon, is not impossible altogether. 25

Another important indication on this point is the reference to the Aulikara monarch Maharajadhiraja Sis-Dravyavardhana in the Brhat-samhita in connection with the omens in a manner indicative of high esteem in which Varahamihira held him and of the fact that he was alive at the time of the composition of the text which is admittedly his most mature and one of the latest works. It was obviously composed about the middle of the sixth century A.D. when Dravyavardhana was ruling as a sovereign ruler from Ujiayini. 26 There are some other literary and cultural evidences, positive and negative, which also support in a general manner the sixth century A.D. as the flourishing period for Varahamihira. 27

_______________

Notes:

10 Sitaram Jha (Brhaj-jataka with Utpala’s gloss, Banaras 1934) gives the reading as 'Vasvastastimite and argues: [x] —There is nothing to commend V. Subrahmanya Sastry’s view (Saravali of Kalyanavarman, Bombay 1928, Preface, pp. 1-2) that Utpala lived at the time of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1605-1627 A.D. ).

11 E. Sachau, Alberuni's India, I, pp. 157-58, 298, 334, 336-37, 361.

12 Ibid. p. 298.

13 S. B. Dikshit, History of Indian Astronomy (Marathi), p. 235.

14 Ibid.

15 We know another Bhaskara who was a direct pupil of Aryabhata and who composed the Maha-Bhaskariya and Laghu-Bhaskariya. Vide P. C. Sengupta, Khandi.khadyaka (Eng. tr.), Calcutta, 1934, Preface, pp. xiii-xiv.

16 JBBRAS, 1948-49, pp. 30-31. Dr. Kane informs us that these verses are not found in some manuscripts of the commentary.

17 I.e. arrangement of constellations according to zodiacal signs and decans which rise simultaneously or set or culminate simultaneously.

18 Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Belgium, for 1957-58. pp. 133- 140.

19 Prof. Naugebaurer’s arguments are summarised in JAS, Bombay, 1958, pp. 147f.

20 Ibid.

21 Miscellaneous Essays, II. pp. 461-463.

21a Cf. Jyotirvidabharana. IV. 53, X. 110, 111, XXII. 13.

22 In the Charwa stone inscription of the reign of Devapaladeva of Dhara. line 7, the word Saka is used to denote Vikrama samvat. It belongs to 1217-18 A.D. For some more examples, see IA, XIX (1890), pp. 24-25. No. 11.

23 On BS, VIII. 20.

24 [x]

25 Also vide Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, II, p. 478.

26 [x] JA, X. p. 58.

27 Saka-nrpati-samvatsaresu, IA, VI, p. 73; Saka-nrpa-samvatsaresu, IA, XII, p. 16; Suka-nrpa-kala, EI, III, p. 109.

-- Varahamihira and His Times, by Ajay Mitra Shastri, M.A., Ph.D., D. Litt., F.R.N.S., Professor and Head Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Nagpur University, Nagpur

-- Alberuni's India: An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws and Astrology of India About A.D. 1080, by Dr. Edward C. Sachau, Professor in the Royal University of Berlin and Principal of the Seminary for Oriental Languages; Member of the Royal Academy of Berlin, and Corresponding Member of the Imperial Academy of Vienna, Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, and of the American Oriental Society, Cambridge, USA, 1910

-- The Saka Era of Varahamihira (Salivahana Saka) [Rep. from Journal of Indian History (Trivandrum), 36 (1958) 343-67, Excerpt, from Collected Papers on Jyotisha, by T.S. Kuppanna Sastry (Former Hony. Professor, Sanskrit College, Madras), 1989

Varāhamihira
Born: c. 20-21 March 505 CE[a] possibly Kapitthaka (identified with Kayatha or Sankissa)
Died: possibly 587 CE (disputed; see Date section)
Occupation: astrologer-astronomer
Notable works: Pancha-siddhantika, Brhat-samhita, Brihajjataka

Varāhamihira (c. 20/21 March 505 – c. 587), also called Varāha or Mihira, was a Hindu astrologer-astronomer who lived in or around Ujjain in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India.

Date

Unlike other prominent ancient Indian astronomers, Varāhamihira does not mention his date.[1] However, based on hints in his works, modern scholars date him to the 6th century CE; possibly, he also lived during the last years of the 5th century.[2]

In his Pancha-siddhantika, Varāhamihira refers to the year 427 of the Shaka-kala (also Shakendra-kala or Shaka-bhupa-kala). Identifying this calendar era with the Shaka era places Varāhamihira in the 505 CE. Alternative theories identify this calendar era with other eras, placing him before the 5th century CE. However, these theories are inaccurate, as Varāhamihira must have lived after Aryabhata (born 476 CE), whose work he refers to. The particulars of the date mentioned by Varāhamihira - Shukla pratipada of the Chaitra month of the Shaka year 427 - align accurately with 20-21 March 505 CE. Al-Biruni also places Varāhamihira in 505 CE.[3]

In accordance with the contemporary tradition, 505 CE was most probably the year in which Varāhamihira composed Pancha-Siddhantaka or began planning it.[1] However, some scholars believe that it was the year of Varāhamihira's birth or of another important event in his life. This is because according to Amaraja, the author of a commentary on Brahmagupta's Khanda-khadyaka, Varāhamihira died in 587 CE (Shaka year 509). If Varāhamihira wrote his work in 505 CE even at the young age of 25, he must have been over 105 years old at the time of his death, which seems exceptionally high to these scholars.[4] Consequently, these scholars consider date Varāhamihira's lifespan to 505-587 CE.[5] Other scholars doubt the accuracy of Amaraja's statement, since he lived a thousand years after Varāhamihira.[4]

According to a historically inaccurate tradition, Varāhamihira was associated with the first century BCE legendary emperor Vikramaditya.[6][7] This tradition is based on Jyotirvid-abharana, a work attributed to Kalidasa, which states that Varāhamihira (along with Kalidasa) was one of the navaratnas ("nine gems") at Vikramaditya's court. However, this text is a literary forgery, and is dated variously from 12th-18th century.[1][8] Varāhamihira definitely did not live in the same century as some of the purported "Navaratnas", such as the much older Kalidasa.[9]

Early life


1399 CE manuscript of the Brihajjataka


1279 CE manuscript of the Brhat-samhita

Much of the undisputed information about the life of Varāhamihira comes from a stanza in his Brhaj-jataka. According to this stanza, he was a resident of Avanti, was a son of Aditya-dasa, and studied at Kapitthaka through the boon of the sun god.[10]

Ancestry

Varāhamihira's father Aditya-dasa likely trained him in jyotisha (Indian astrology and astronomy), as suggested by the Brhaj-jataka stanza and the opening stanza of Pancha-siddhantika.[10]

Varāhamihira's commentator Utpala calls him "Magadha-dvija". According to one interpretation, this means that Varāhamihira was a Brahmin (dvija), whose ancestors belonged to the Magadha region.[11][12]

According to another theory, the word "Magadha" in this context refers to the sun-worshipping Maga cult that Varāhamihira was a part of. In his Brhat-samhita, Varāhamihira mentions that the Magas were the only people suitable for consecrating an image of the Sun god. The Magas, as they came to be known in India, originated from the Magi priests of the Achaemenid Empire. Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri cites a Bhavishya Purana passage according to which the term "Magadha" is a synonym of "Maga" and refers to "those who contemplate on the Maga". According to Shastri, Utpala has used the word "Magadha" to denote the Magas, who had been accepted as Shaka-dvipi (Maga) Brahmins in the Indian society.[13]

Shastri theorizes that "Varaha-mihira" may be a Sanskritized form of the Iranian name "Varaza-Mihr", and may refer to a legend mentioned in the Mihr Yasht of the Avesta. According to this legend, the god Verethraghna, in the form of a boar (varaza), precedes Mihr in his march. Shastri notes that the 5th century Sassanian monarch Bahram V bore the name Mihrvaraza, which is quite similar to Varahamihra. Academic J.E. Sanjana suggests that Varāhamihira was descended from an Iranian Magi priest.[14]

Some scholars, such as M.T. Patwardhan and A.N. Upadhye, have identified Varāhamihira with Bazurjmehr, mentioned in Firishta's writings as a minister of the Sasanian king Khusraw Nushirwan (r. 531-578). However, A.M. Shastri dismisses this theory as unconvincing.[15]

There are several historically inaccurate legends about the ancestry of Varāhamihira:

• Jain writers Merutunga (14th century) and Rajashekhara-Suri claim that his original name was Varaha, and he was a brother of the Jain patriarch Bhadrabahu. He gained knowledge because of a favour by the Sun, because of which the suffix "Mihira" ("Sun") was added to his name.[16] Jain authors seem to have fabricated this story to prove the pre-eminence of the Jain astrology over the Brahmanical astrology.[17]
• Another 20th century legend, purportedly based on "some old Gujarati text" claims that Aditya-dasa's wife was called Satya-vati alias Indu-mati: Varāhamihira was born to them in their fifties by the boon of the Sun. He was originally known as Mihira, and was given the prefix "Varaha" by King Vikramaditya when he correctly predicted that a boar (varaha in Sanskrit) would kill the king's son.[18]
• A tradition associates Varāhamihira with Berachampa in West Bengal, where a mound called "Varāhamihira's house" is located. This seems to be the result of an attempt to associate the locality with a famous figure. A legend from the Bengal region claims that Varaha and Mihira were a father-son duo at Vikramaditya's court, and the poet Khana was Mihira's wife. This legend is of no historical value.[19] "Varaha" and "Mihira" were alternative names for the same person - Varāhamihira, as attested by the later astronomical works.[10]
• Another legend claims that the Mimamsa teacher Shabara-svamin had four wives, one from each varna, and Varāhamihira was his son from his Brahmin wife. Some scholars, such as S.K. Dikshit, have theorized that Aditya-dasa (or Aditya-deva) was another name of Shabara-svamin, but no historical evidence supports this tradition.[17]

Birthplace

Kapitthaka, where Varāhamihira studied, was probably his birthplace.[12][10] While "Kapitthaka" is the most popular reading the place's name, several variants of this name appear in various manuscripts, including Kampilyaka,[ b] Kapilaka, Kapishthala, and Kapishkala.[10] Utpala suggests that this village had a sun temple. According to one theory, Kapitthaka is the modern Kayatha, an archaeological site near Ujjain. Statues of the sun deity Surya (whom Varāhamihira worshipped) dated 600-900 CE have been found there, and kapittha trees are abundant in and around Kayatha. However, no historical source suggests that Kapitthaka was another name for Kayatha. According to another theory, Kapitthaka is same as Sankissa (ancient Sankashya) in present-day Uttar Pradesh: according to the 7th-century Chinese traveler Xuanzang, this town was also known as Kah-pi-t'a. Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri notes that Kah-pi-t'a is phonetically similar to Kapittha or Kapitthaka.[21]

Based on the term "Magadha-dvija" (see above), Sudhakara Dvivedi suggests that Varāhamihira was born and brought up in Magadha, and later migrated to Ujjain.[22] Ajay Mitra Shastri disputes this, noting that Utpala describes him as "Avantikacharya" (Acharya of Avanti) and "Magadha-dvija": these two terms cannot be reconciled if "Magadha-dvija" is interpreted as "Dvija (Brahmana) of Magadha"; instead "Magadha" here means Maga, as attested by the Bhavishya Purana.[11]

Residence

Besides the above-mentioned stanza, Varāhamihira's association with Avanti is confirmed by other evidence: in Pancha-siddhantika, he calls himself Avantyaka ("of Avanti"), and the later commentators such as Utpala and Mahidhara describe him as Avantikacharya ("acharya of Avanti").[10] Utpala also describes Varāhamihira's son Prthu-yashas as Avantikacharya, in his commentary on Shat-panchashika.[23]

Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri, relying on Utpala, believes that "Avanti" here refers to the city of Ujjayini in the Avanti region of central India.[10] Scholar Dániel Balogh, however, notes that Avanti here may refer to the city of Ujjayini or the Avanti region in general: there is no concrete evidence that Varāhamihira lived in the city; he may have lived elsewhere in Avanti.[24]

Royal patron

Varāhamihira likely lived in the Aulikara kingdom, as the Aulikaras ruled Avanti in the 6th century CE.[25][26] Varāhamihira's Brhat-samhita states that on the topic of omens (shakuna), one of the works he consulted was that of Dravya-vardhana, the king of Avanti.[27] Dravya-vardhana likely belonged to the Aulikara dynasty, several of whose members bore names ending in -vardhana.[25]

Historian Ajay Mitra Shastri notes that Dravya-vardhana is the only person for whom Varāhamihira employs the honorific Shri, although he mentions several other notable people. Moreover, he mentions Dravya-vardhana's work before he mentions reputed authorities such as the Saptarishis and Garga. According to Shastri, this, combined with the fact that both Dravya-vardhana and Varāhamihira lived in Avanti, suggests that Dravya-vardhana was the royal patron of Varāhamihira.[27] Shastri theorizes that Dravya-vardhana was a successor of Yashodharman alias Vishnu-vardhana, who may have also been a patron of Varāhamihira.[28]

Some other historians identify Dravya-vardhana with the earlier Aulikara ruler Drapa-vardhana. Shastri disputes this, arguing that Varāhamihira describes Dravya-vardhana as a maharajadhiraja (emperor), while the Rīsthal inscription describes Drapa-vardhana as a senapati (commander). Balogh disagrees with Shastri, noting that Varāhamihira actually uses the term nrpo maharajadhiraja-kah (nrpa or ruler "connected to the emperor") for the king, which Shastri has misunderstood as maharajadhirajah (emperor). Only one manuscript reads maharajadhirajah, which can be discarded as it doesn't fit the metre; three others have maharajdhiraja-jah. Thus, the actual title of Drapa-vardhana was nrpa, which is much closer to senapati in status. Utpala also interprets the term maharajadhiraja-kah to mean "born in the dynasty of the (or an) emperor".[29] Hans Bakker interprets the term to maharajadhiraja-kah as a governor installed at Ujjayini by the contemporary Gupta emperor.[26] Balogh believes that Dravya-vardhana was probably same as Drapa-vardhana: "Dravya" may be a variant arising from a mistake in a medieval manuscript, which is the source of later manuscripts.[26]

Balogh disputes Shastri's assertion that Varāhamihira shows a particularly reverential attitude to the king, and even if he did, this is no evidence that the two were contemporaries. Varāhamihira consulted the king's work instead of the original work of Bharadvaja that it was based on; according to Balogh, this actually makes it more likely that the king lived at a time earlier than Varāhamihira, who did not have access to the older work of Bharadvaja.[30]

According to Balogh, Varāhamihira likely lived during the reign of the Aulikara kings Prakasha-dharman, Yashodharman, or an unknown successor of Yashodharman. However, unlike Shastri, Balogh believes that Varāhamihira did not have a royal patron.[26]

Religion

Several scholars theorize that Varāhamihira came from a Brahminized family of the sun-worshipping Magi priests (see Ancestry above).[31][13] He was a worshipper of the sun god Savitur, and stated that he had received all his knowledge by the grace of this god.[32] For example, in Brhaj-jataka, he states that he was able to compose the text because of a boon by the Sun.[28] While he mentions other deities, he devotes a much larger number of verses to the Sun.[11] His commentator Utpala credits his sharp intellect to a boon by the Sun.[28] Some later writers describe him as an incarnation of the Sun god.[18] Utpala, for example, declares that the Sun descended on earth in the form of Varāhamihira to save the jyotisha-shastra from destruction.[33] The Subhashita-ratna-kosha quotes stanzas that praise Varāhamihira as an incarnation of Vishnu and the Sun, presumably because of two parts of his name (varaha referring to an avatar of Vishnu, and mihira meaning sun).[23]

Sun worship seems to have been his family's religion, as his father Aditya-dasa's name literally means "slave (or servant) of the Sun".[28][34] Kutuhula-manjari, a later text, suggests that Varāhamihira was born to Aditya-dasa by the blessings of the Sun. Varāhamihira's son Prthu-yashas also invokes the Sun in the opening stanza of his work Shatpanchashikha.[28]

Varāhamihira was well-versed with the Vedic tradition.[35] He recommends the performance of several ancient Hindu rituals such as Punyaham and chanting of Vedic hymns.[36]

Varāhamihira praises Vishnu in the chapters 42 and 104 of Brhat-samhita, leading A.N.S. Aiyangar and K.V.R Aiyangar to speculate that he came in contact with the Shrivaishnava saints (Alvars); however, A.M. Shastri dismisses this theory, describing the praise for Vishnu as an example of religious eclecticism.[37]

In Brhat-samhita, Varāhamihira discusses the iconography of several Brahmanical deities, including Vishnu, Baladeva, Ekanamsha, Shamba, Pradyumna, consorts of Shamba and Pradyumna, Brahma, Skanda, Indra, Shiva, Surya, the divine mothers (Matrikas), Revanta, Yama, Varuna, and Kubera.[38] These were presumably the popular gods worshipped during his period. He also describes the iconography of two non-Brahmanical faiths, that of the Buddha and the Jinas. He appears to have been religiously liberal, as he reveres the Buddha as "the father of the world" and devotes an entire stanza to Buddha's iconology (compared to shorter descriptions of several Brahmanical deities).[39] A verse in the Brhat-samhita describes the iconography of Ganesha, but this verse appears only in one or two manuscripts, and is likely a later interpolation. Similarly, a Tikanika-yatra verse in which the author reveres Ganesha (among other deities), is likely spurious; this verse appears only in one manuscript.[40]

Works

Varāhamihira is credited with writing several authoritative texts on astronomy and astrology. He was also known for his poetic skills, and the 11th-century writer Kshemendra describes him as a great poet.[2]

He apparently wrote a set of two works - detailed and short - in the following areas:[41]

Area / Detailed work / Short work

Mathematical astronomy (tantra) / Pancha-siddhantika / Now lost, known from Utpala's commentary
Horoscopy (hora): nativity / Brhaj-jataka / Laghu-jataka
Horoscopy: marriage / Brhad-vivaha-patala / Svalpa-vivaha-patala
Horoscopy: journeys / Brhad-yatra and Yoga-yatra / Svalpa-yatra
General astrology (samhita) / Brhat-samhita / Samasa-samhita

The chronological order of some of these works can be determined based on the internal evidence and Utpala's commentary. In order or earliest to latest, these works are:[42]

• Pancha-siddhantika
• Brhaj-jataka
• Brhad-yatra
• Yoga-yatra (according to Utpala, Varaha-mihira wrote this because he was dissatisfied with Brhad-yatra)
• Brhad-vivaha-patala
• Brhat-samhita

Laghu-jataka states that it was written after Brhaj-jataka, and Utpala's commentary states that it was written after the abridged version of Pancha-siddhantika. However, its order with respect to the other works is not certain.[42]

Later authors also mention or quote from some other works composed by Varaha-mihira. Manuscripts of some other works attributed to Varaha-mihira exist, but these attributions are of doubtful nature.[42]

Influences

The Romaka Siddhanta ("The Doctrine of the Romans") and the Paulisa Siddhanta were two works of Western origin which influenced Varāhamihira's thought. The Pauliṣa Siddhānta is often mistakenly thought to be a single work and attributed to Paul of Alexandria (c. 378 CE).[43] However, this notion has been rejected by other scholars in the field, notably by David Pingree who stated that "...the identification of Paulus Alexandrinus with the author of the Pauliṣa Siddhānta is totally false".[44] A number of his writings share similarities with the earlier texts like Vedanga Jyotisha.[45]

Some scholars consider Varāhamihira to be the strong candidate for the one who understood and introduced the zodiac signs, predictive calculations for auspicious ceremonies and astrological computations in India.[46][47][48]

Varāhamihira's works contain 35 Sanskritized Greek astronomical terms, and he exhibits a good understanding of the Greek astronomy.[49] He praised the Greeks (Yavanas) for being "well trained in the sciences", though impure in ritual order.[50]

Legacy

Varāhamihira gained reputation as the most eminent writer on jyotisha after his death, and his works superseded nearly all the earlier Indian texts in this area. Several later Indian astrologer-astronomers speak highly of him, and acknowledge his works among their main sources.[51] The 11th-century writer Al-Biruni also greatly admires him, describing him as an excellent astronomer.[52]

See also

• List of Indian mathematicians

Notes

1. Birthdate is disputed, see #Date
2. Sudhakara Dvivedi, following the reading "Kampilyaka", identified Varahamihira's birthplace as present-day Kalpi in Uttar Pradesh. However, this identification is incorrect: the ancient name of Kalpi was Kalapriya, not Kampilyaka.[20]

References

1. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 3.
2. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 1.
3. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 3–4.
4. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 4.
5. Evans, Brian (24 February 2014). The Development of Mathematics Throughout the Centuries: A Brief History in a Cultural Context. John Wiley & Sons. p. 61. ISBN 978-1118853979. Varāhamihira, a mathematician born around 505 CE and died 587 CE, who was also known for innovation with Pascal's triangle.
6. History of Indian Literature. Motilal Banarsidass Publications. 2008. p. 46.
7. Gopal, Ram (1984). Kālidāsa: His Art and Culture. Concept Publishing Company. p. 15.
8. M. Srinivasachariar (1974). History of Classical Sanskrit Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 94–111. ISBN 9788120802841.
9. Winternitz, Moriz (1985). History of Indian Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 45–47. ISBN 978-81-208-0056-4.
10. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 5.
11. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 10.
12. T.K Puttaswamy (2012). Mathematical Achievements of Pre-modern Indian Mathematicians. p. 141. ISBN 9780123979131.
13. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 10–11.
14. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 13.
15. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 17–18.
16. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 8–9.
17. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 17.
18. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 9.
19. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 248.
20. A.M. Shastri 1969, p. 15.
21. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 6.
22. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 27.
23. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 24.
24. Dániel Balogh 2019, p. 142-143.
25. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 51.
26. Dániel Balogh 2019, p. 143.
27. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 43–45.
28. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 8.
29. Dániel Balogh 2019, pp. 141–142.
30. Dániel Balogh 2019, p. 142.
31. Abraham Eraly (2014). "Pearls and Pebbles". The First Spring Part 2: Culture in the Golden Age of India. Penguin. ISBN 9789351186465. He belonged, as his name indicates, to a Brahminized family of the Magi, sun-worshipping Zoroastrian priests, and he himself came to be regarded in later times as an incarnation of the sun god.
32. B. Suryanarain Rao, ed. (1986). Sree Varaha Mihira's Brihat Jataka. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 612. ISBN 9788120813953.
33. A.M. Shastri 1969, p. 1.
34. M.R. Bhatt 1996, p. 572.
35. M.R. Bhatt 1996, p. 638.
36. M.R. Bhatt 1996, p. 570.
37. A.M. Shastri 1969, p. 21.
38. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 100–120.
39. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 120–121.
40. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 121.
41. A.M. Shastri 1991, pp. 19–20.
42. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 20.
43. McEvilley, Thomas (November 2001). The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies. Allworth Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-1-58115-203-6.
44. Pingree, David (1978). The Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja. Harvard Oriental Series. Vol. 2. pp. 437–438.
Pingree, David (1969). The Later Pauliśa Siddhānta. Centaurus 14. pp. 172–241.
45. Velandai Gopala Aiyer. The chronology of ancient India: beginning of the Sat Yuga, Dwaper, Treta, and Kali Yuga with date of Mahabharata. Sanjay Prakashan. p. 63.
46. Winternitz, Moriz (1985). History of Indian Literature. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 685–697. ISBN 978-81-208-0056-4.
47. Pingree, David (1963). "Astronomy and Astrology in India and Iran". Isis. 54 (2). University of Chicago Press: 229–246. doi:10.1086/349703. JSTOR 228540. S2CID 128083594.
48. Sarma, K. V. (2008). "Varahamihira". In Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. pp. 2184–2185. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9604. ISBN 978-1-4020-4559-2.
49. A.M. Shastri 1991, p. 18.
50. Chaudhuri, Kirti Narayan (1990). Asia Before Europe Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0521316812.
51. A.M. Shastri 1969, pp. 1–3.
52. A.M. Shastri 1969, p. 4.

Bibliography

• A.M. Shastri (1991). Varāhamihira and His Times. Kusumanjali. OCLC 28644897.
• A.M. Shastri (1969). India as Seen in the Bṛhatsaṁhitā of Varāhamihira. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9780896842212.
• Dániel Balogh (2019). Inscriptions of the Aulikaras and Their Associates. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110649789.
• M. Ramakrishna Bhat, ed. (1996) [1982]. Brhat Samhita of Varahamihira (Second ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120810600.

External links

• The Brihat-samhita; complete translation by N. Chidambaram Iyer Online edition with glossary
• Pancasiddhantika, Brihat Jataka, Brihat Samhita and Hora Shastra Various editions in English and Sanskrit. (PDF)
• The Brihat Jataka (1905) (PDF) – archived from Wayback Machine

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Darius the Great
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 11/17/24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_the_Great

Darius the Great

The relief stone of Darius the Great in the Behistun Inscription
King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire
Reign: 29 September 522 BCE – October 486 BCE
Coronation: Pasargadae
Predecessor: Bardiya
Successor: Xerxes I
Born: c. 550 BCE
Died: October 486 BCE
Burial: Naqsh-e Rostam
Spouse: Atossa Artystone Parmys Phratagune Phaedymiaa, daughter of Gobryas
Issue: Artobazanes Xerxes I; Ariabignes Arsamenes; Masistes Achaemenes; Arsames Gobryas; Ariomardus Abrocomes; Hyperanthes Artazostre
Names: Dārayava(h)uš
Dynasty: Achaemenid
Father: Hystaspes
Mother: Rhodogune or Irdabama
Religion: Indo-Iranian religion

Darius I (Old Persian: [x] Dārayavaʰuš; c. 550 – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of Western Asia, parts of the Balkans (Thrace–Macedonia and Paeonia) and the Caucasus, most of the Black Sea's coastal regions, Central Asia, the Indus Valley in the far east, and portions of North Africa and Northeast Africa including Egypt (Mudrâya), eastern Libya, and coastal Sudan.[1][2]

Darius ascended the throne by overthrowing the Achaemenid monarch Bardiya (or Smerdis), who he claimed was in fact an imposter named Gaumata. The new king met with rebellions throughout the empire but quelled each of them; a major event in Darius's life was his expedition to subjugate Greece and punish Athens and Eretria for their participation in the Ionian Revolt. Although his campaign ultimately resulted in failure at the Battle of Marathon, he succeeded in the re-subjugation of Thrace and expanded the Achaemenid Empire through his conquests of Macedonia, the Cyclades, and the island of Naxos.

Darius organized the empire by dividing it into administrative provinces, each governed by a satrap. He organized Achaemenid coinage as a new uniform monetary system, and he made Aramaic a co-official language of the empire alongside Persian. He also put the empire in better standing by building roads and introducing standard weights and measures. Through these changes, the Achaemenid Empire became centralized and unified.[3] Darius undertook other construction projects throughout his realm, primarily focusing on Susa, Pasargadae, Persepolis, Babylon, and Egypt. He had an inscription carved upon a cliff-face of Mount Behistun to record his conquests, which would later become important evidence of the Old Persian language.

Etymology

Main article: Darius (given name)


The name of Darius I in Old Persian cuneiform on the DNa inscription of his tomb: Dārayavauš ([x])

Dārīus and Dārēus are the Latin forms of the Greek Dareîos (Δαρεῖος), itself from Old Persian Dārayauš ([x], d-a-r-y-uš; which is a shortened form of Dārayavaʰuš ([x], d-a-r-y-v-u-š). The longer Persian form is reflected in the Elamite Da-ri-(y)a-ma-u-iš, Babylonian Da-(a-)ri-ia-(a-)muš, and Aramaic drywhwš ([x]) forms, and possibly in the longer Greek form, Dareiaîos ([x]). The name in nominative form means "he who holds firm the good(ness)", which can be seen by the first part dāraya, meaning "holder", and the adverb vau, meaning "goodness".[4]

Primary sources

See also: Behistun Inscription, DNa inscription, and Herodotus

Apadana foundation tablets of Darius the Great


Gold foundation tablets of Darius I for the Apadana Palace, in their original stone box. The Apadana coin hoard had been deposited underneath (c. 510 BCE).



One of the two gold deposition plates. Two more were in silver. They all had the same trilingual inscription (DPh inscription).

At some time between his coronation and his death, Darius left a tri-lingual monumental relief on Mount Behistun, which was written in Elamite, Old Persian and Babylonian. The inscription begins with a brief autobiography including his ancestry and lineage. To aid the presentation of his ancestry, Darius wrote down the sequence of events that occurred after the death of Cyrus the Great.[5][6] Darius mentions several times that he is the rightful king by the grace of the supreme deity Ahura Mazda. In addition, further texts and monuments from Persepolis have been found, as well as a clay tablet containing an Old Persian cuneiform of Darius from Gherla, Romania (Harmatta) and a letter from Darius to Gadates, preserved in a Greek text of the Roman period.[7][8][9][10] In the foundation tablets of Apadana Palace, Darius described in Old Persian cuneiform the extent of his Empire in broad geographical terms:[11][12]

Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenid. King Darius says: This is the kingdom which I hold, from the Sacae who are beyond Sogdia to Kush, and from Sind (Old Persian: [x], "Hidauv", locative of "Hiduš", i.e. "Indus valley") to Lydia (Old Persian: "Spardâ") – [this is] what Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods, bestowed upon me. May Ahuramazda protect me and my royal house!

— DPh inscription of Darius I in the foundations of the Apadana Palace

Herodotus, a Greek historian and author of The Histories, provided an account of many Persian kings and the Greco-Persian Wars. He wrote extensively on Darius, spanning half of Book 3 along with Books 4, 5 and 6. It begins with the removal of the alleged usurper Gaumata and continues to the end of Darius's reign.[7]

Early life

The predecessor of Darius: Bardiya/ Gaumata


"Gaumata" being trampled upon by Darius the Great, Behistun inscription. The Old Persian inscription reads "This is Gaumâta, the Magian. He lied, saying "I am Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, I am king"."[13]


Portrait of Achaemenid King Bardiya, or "Gaumata", from the reliefs at Behistun (detail).

Darius toppled the previous Achaemenid ruler (here depicted in the reliefs of the Behistun inscription) to acquire the throne.

Darius was the eldest of five sons to Hystaspes.[7] The identity of his mother is uncertain. According to the modern historian Alireza Shapour Shahbazi (1994), Darius's mother was thought to have been a woman named Rhodogune.[7] However, according to Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (2013), recently uncovered texts in Persepolis indicate that his mother was Irdabama, an affluent landowner descended from a family of local Elamite rulers.[14] Richard Stoneman likewise refers to Irdabama as the mother of Darius.[15] The Behistun Inscription of Darius states that his father was satrap of Bactria in 522 BCE.[a] According to Herodotus (III.139), Darius, prior to seizing power and "of no consequence at the time", had served as a spearman (doryphoros) in the Egyptian campaign (528–525 BCE) of Cambyses II, then the Persian Great King;[18] this is often interpreted to mean he was the king's personal spear-carrier, an important role. Hystaspes was an officer in Cyrus's army and a noble of his court.[19]

Before Cyrus and his army crossed the river Araxes to battle with the Armenians, he installed his son Cambyses II as king in case he should not return from battle.[20] However, once Cyrus had crossed the Aras River, he had a vision in which Darius had wings atop his shoulders and stood upon the confines of Europe and Asia (the known world). When Cyrus awoke from the dream, he inferred it as a great danger to the future security of the empire, as it meant that Darius would one day rule the whole world. However, his son Cambyses was the heir to the throne, not Darius, causing Cyrus to wonder if Darius was forming treasonable and ambitious designs. This led Cyrus to order Hystaspes to go back to Persis and watch over his son strictly, until Cyrus himself returned.[21]

Accession


Lineage of Darius the Great according to the Behistun Inscription.

There are different accounts of the rise of Darius to the throne from both Darius himself and Greek historians. The oldest records report a convoluted sequence of events in which Cambyses II lost his mind, murdered his brother Bardiya, and was killed by an infected leg wound. After this, Darius and a group of six nobles traveled to Sikayauvati to kill an usurper, Gaumata, who had taken the throne by pretending to be Bardiya during the true king's absence.

Darius's account, written at the Behistun Inscription, states that Cambyses II killed his own brother Bardiya, but that this murder was not known among the Iranian people. A would-be usurper named Gaumata came and lied to the people, stating that he was Bardiya.[22] The Iranians had grown rebellious against Cambyses's rule and, on 11 March 522 BCE, a revolt against Cambyses broke out in his absence. On 1 July, the Iranian people chose to be under the leadership of Gaumata, as "Bardiya". No member of the Achaemenid family would rise against Gaumata for the safety of their own life. Darius, who had served Cambyses as his lance-bearer until the deposed ruler's death, prayed for aid and, in September 522 BCE, along with Otanes, Intaphrenes, Gobryas, Hydarnes, Megabyzus and Aspathines, killed Gaumata in the fortress of Sikayauvati.[22]

Cylinder seal of Darius the Great




Impression of a cylinder seal of King Darius the Great hunting in a chariot, reading "I am Darius, the Great King" in Old Persian ([x], "adam Dārayavaʰuš xšāyaθiya"), Elamite and Babylonian. The word 'great' only appears in Babylonian. British Museum, excavated in Thebes, Egypt.[23][24][25]

Herodotus provides a dubious account of Darius's ascension: Several days after Gaumata had been assassinated, Darius and the other six nobles discussed the fate of the empire. At first, the seven discussed the form of government: A democratic republic (Isonomia) was strongly pushed by Otanes, an oligarchy was pushed by Megabyzus, while Darius pushed for a monarchy. After stating that a republic would lead to corruption and internal fighting, while a monarchy would be led with a single-mindedness not possible in other governments, Darius was able to convince the other nobles.

To decide who would become the monarch, six of them decided on a test, with Otanes abstaining, as he had no interest in being king. They were to gather outside the palace, mounted on their horses at sunrise, and the man whose horse neighed first in recognition of the rising sun would become king. According to Herodotus, Darius had a slave, Oebares, who rubbed his hand over the genitals of a mare that Darius's horse favored. When the six gathered, Oebares placed his hands beside the nostrils of Darius's horse, who became excited at the scent and neighed. This was followed by lightning and thunder, leading the others to dismount and kneel before Darius in recognition of his apparent divine providence.[26] In this account, Darius himself claimed that he achieved the throne not through fraud, but cunning, even erecting a statue of himself mounted on his neighing horse with the inscription: "Darius, son of Hystaspes, obtained the sovereignty of Persia by the sagacity of his horse and the ingenious contrivance of Oebares, his groom."[27]

According to the accounts of Greek historians, Cambyses II had left Patizeithes in charge of the kingdom when he headed for Egypt. He later sent Prexaspes to murder Bardiya. After the killing, Patizeithes put his brother Gaumata, a Magian who resembled Bardiya, on the throne and declared him the Great King. Otanes discovered that Gaumata was an impostor, and along with six other Iranian nobles, including Darius, created a plan to oust the pseudo-Bardiya. After killing the impostor along with his brother Patizeithes and other Magians, Darius was crowned king the following morning.[7]

The details regarding Darius's rise to power is generally acknowledged as forgery and was in reality used as a concealment of his overthrow and murder of Cyrus's rightful successor, Bardiya.[28][29][30] To legitimize his rule, Darius had a common origin fabricated between himself and Cyrus by designating Achaemenes as the eponymous founder of their dynasty.[28] In reality, Darius was not from the same house as Cyrus and his forebears, the rulers of Anshan.[28][31]

Early reign

Early revolts


Darius the Great, by Eugène Flandin (1840)

Main article: Achaemenid Civil War (522-520 BC)

Following his coronation at Pasargadae, Darius moved to Ecbatana. He soon learned that support for Bardiya was strong, and revolts in Elam and Babylonia had broken out.[32] Darius ended the Elamite revolt when the revolutionary leader Aschina was captured and executed in Susa. After three months the revolt in Babylonia had ended. While in Babylonia, Darius learned a revolution had broken out in Bactria, a satrapy which had always been in favour of Darius, and had initially volunteered an army of soldiers to quell revolts. Following this, revolts broke out in Persis, the homeland of the Persians and Darius and then in Elam and Babylonia, followed by in Media, Parthia, Assyria, and Egypt.[33]

By 522 BCE, there were revolts against Darius in most parts of the Achaemenid Empire leaving the empire in turmoil. Even though Darius did not seem to have the support of the populace, Darius had a loyal army, led by close confidants and nobles (including the six nobles who had helped him remove Gaumata). With their support, Darius was able to suppress and quell all revolts within a year. In Darius's words, he had killed a total of nine "lying kings" through the quelling of revolutions.[34] Darius left a detailed account of these revolutions in the Behistun Inscription.[34]

Elimination of Intaphernes

One of the significant events of Darius's early reign was the slaying of Intaphernes, one of the seven noblemen who had deposed the previous ruler and installed Darius as the new monarch.[35] The seven had made an agreement that they could all visit the new king whenever they pleased, except when he was with a woman.[35] One evening, Intaphernes went to the palace to meet Darius, but was stopped by two officers who stated that Darius was with a woman.[35] Becoming enraged and insulted, Intaphernes drew his sword and cut off the ears and noses of the two officers.[35] While leaving the palace, he took the bridle from his horse, and tied the two officers together.

The officers went to the king and showed him what Intaphernes had done to them. Darius began to fear for his own safety; he thought that all seven noblemen had banded together to rebel against him and that the attack against his officers was the first sign of revolt. He sent a messenger to each of the noblemen, asking them if they approved of Intaphernes's actions. They denied and disavowed any connection with Intaphernes's actions, stating that they stood by their decision to appoint Darius as King of Kings. Darius's choice to ask the noblemen indicates that he was not yet completely sure of his authority.[35]

Taking precautions against further resistance, Darius sent soldiers to seize Intaphernes, along with his son, family members, relatives and any friends who were capable of arming themselves. Darius believed that Intaphernes was planning a rebellion, but when he was brought to the court, there was no proof of any such plan. Nonetheless, Darius killed Intaphernes's entire family, excluding his wife's brother and son. She was asked to choose between her brother and son. She chose her brother to live. Her reasoning for doing so was that she could have another husband and another son, but she would always have but one brother. Darius was impressed by her response and spared both her brother's and her son's life.[36]

Military campaigns



Egyptian alabaster vase of Darius I with quadrilingual hieroglyphic and cuneiform inscriptions. The hieroglyph on the vase reads: "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands, Darius, living forever, year 36".[37][38]

Egyptian campaign

Main article: Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt

After securing his authority over the entire empire, Darius embarked on a campaign to Egypt where he defeated the armies of the Pharaoh and secured the lands that Cambyses had conquered while incorporating a large portion of Egypt into the Achaemenid Empire.[39]

Through another series of campaigns, Darius I would eventually reign over the territorial apex of the empire, when it stretched from parts of the Balkans (Thrace-Macedonia, Bulgaria-Paeonia) in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east.

Invasion of the Indus Valley


Eastern border of the Achaemenid Empire

Main article: Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley

In 516 BCE, Darius embarked on a campaign to Central Asia, Aria and Bactria and then marched into Afghanistan to Taxila in modern-day Pakistan. Darius spent the winter of 516–515 BCE in Gandhara, preparing to conquer the Indus Valley. Darius conquered the lands surrounding the Indus River in 515 BCE. Darius I controlled the Indus Valley from Gandhara to modern Karachi and appointed the Greek Scylax of Caryanda to explore the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to Suez. Darius then marched through the Bolan Pass and returned through Arachosia and Drangiana back to Persia.

Babylonian revolt

After Bardiya was murdered, widespread revolts occurred throughout the empire, especially on the eastern side. Darius asserted his position as king by force, taking his armies throughout the empire, suppressing each revolt individually. The most notable of all these revolts was the Babylonian revolt which was led by Nebuchadnezzar III. This revolt occurred when Otanes withdrew much of the army from Babylon to aid Darius in suppressing other revolts. Darius felt that the Babylonian people had taken advantage of him and deceived him, which resulted in Darius gathering a large army and marching to Babylon. At Babylon, Darius was met with closed gates and a series of defences to keep him and his armies out.[40]

Darius encountered mockery and taunting from the rebels, including the famous saying "Oh yes, you will capture our city, when mules shall have foals." For a year and a half, Darius and his armies were unable to retake the city, though he attempted many tricks and strategies—even copying that which Cyrus the Great had employed when he captured Babylon. However, the situation changed in Darius's favour when, according to the story, a mule owned by Zopyrus, a high-ranking soldier, foaled. Following this, a plan was hatched for Zopyrus to pretend to be a deserter, enter the Babylonian camp, and gain the trust of the Babylonians. The plan was successful and Darius's army eventually surrounded the city and overcame the rebels.[41]

During this revolt, Scythian nomads took advantage of the disorder and chaos and invaded Persia. Darius first finished defeating the rebels in Elam, Assyria, and Babylon and then attacked the Scythian invaders. He pursued the invaders, who led him to a marsh; there he found no known enemies but an enigmatic Scythian tribe.[42]

European Scythian campaign

Main article: European Scythian campaign of Darius I


Map of the European Scythian campaign of Darius I

The Scythians were a group of north Iranian nomadic tribes, speaking an Eastern Iranian language (Scythian languages) who had invaded Media, killed Cyrus in battle, revolted against Darius and threatened to disrupt trade between Central Asia and the shores of the Black Sea as they lived between the Danube River, River Don and the Black Sea.[7][43]

Darius crossed the Black Sea at the Bosphorus Straits using a bridge of boats. Darius conquered large portions of Eastern Europe, even crossing the Danube to wage war on the Scythians. Darius invaded European Scythia in 513 BCE,[44] where the Scythians evaded Darius's army, using feints and retreating eastwards while laying waste to the countryside, by blocking wells, intercepting convoys, destroying pastures and continuous skirmishes against Darius's army.[45] Seeking to fight with the Scythians, Darius's army chased the Scythian army deep into Scythian lands, where there were no cities to conquer and no supplies to forage. In frustration Darius sent a letter to the Scythian ruler Idanthyrsus to fight or surrender. The ruler replied that he would not stand and fight with Darius until they found the graves of their fathers and tried to destroy them. Until then, they would continue their strategy as they had no cities or cultivated lands to lose.[46]

Despite the evading tactics of the Scythians, Darius's campaign was so far relatively successful.[47] As presented by Herodotus, the tactics used by the Scythians resulted in the loss of their best lands and of damage to their loyal allies.[47] This gave Darius the initiative.[47] As he moved eastwards in the cultivated lands of the Scythians in Eastern Europe proper, he remained resupplied by his fleet and lived to an extent off the land.[47] While moving eastwards in the European Scythian lands, he captured the large fortified city of the Budini, one of the allies of the Scythians, and burnt it.[47]

Darius eventually ordered a halt at the banks of Oarus, where he built "eight great forts, some eight miles [13 km] distant from each other", no doubt as a frontier defence.[47] In his Histories, Herodotus states that the ruins of the forts were still standing in his day.[48] After chasing the Scythians for a month, Darius's army was suffering losses due to fatigue, privation and sickness. Concerned about losing more of his troops, Darius halted the march at the banks of the Volga River and headed towards Thrace.[49] He had conquered enough Scythian territory to force the Scythians to respect the Persian forces.[7][50]

Persian invasion of Greece

Main article: First Persian invasion of Greece

See also: Ionian Revolt


Map showing key sites during the Persian invasions of Greece

Darius's European expedition was a major event in his reign, which began with the invasion of Thrace. Darius also conquered many cities of the northern Aegean, Paeonia, while Macedonia submitted voluntarily, after the demand of earth and water, becoming a vassal kingdom.[51] He then left Megabyzus to conquer Thrace, returning to Sardis to spend the winter. The Greeks living in Asia Minor and some of the Greek islands had submitted to Persian rule already by 510 BCE. Nonetheless, there were certain Greeks who were pro-Persian, although these were largely based in Athens. To improve Greek-Persian relations, Darius opened his court and treasuries to those Greeks who wanted to serve him. These Greeks served as soldiers, artisans, statesmen and mariners for Darius. However, the increasing concerns amongst the Greeks over the strength of Darius's kingdom along with the constant interference by the Greeks in Ionia and Lydia were stepping stones towards the conflict that was yet to come between Persia and certain of the leading Greek city states.


The "Darius Vase" at the Archaeological Museum of Naples. c. 340–320 BCE.


Detail of Darius, with a label in Greek ([x], top right) giving his name.

When Aristagoras organized the Ionian Revolt, Eretria and Athens supported him by sending ships and troops to Ionia and by burning Sardis. Persian military and naval operations to quell the revolt ended in the Persian reoccupation of Ionian and Greek islands, as well as the re-subjugation of Thrace and the conquering of Macedonia in 492 BCE under Mardonius.[52] Macedon had been a vassal kingdom of the Persians since the late 6th century BCE, but retained autonomy. Mardonius's 492 campaign made it a fully subordinate part of the Persian kingdom.[51] These military actions, coming as a direct response to the revolt in Ionia, were the beginning of the First Persian invasion of (mainland) Greece. At the same time, anti-Persian parties gained more power in Athens, and pro-Persian aristocrats were exiled from Athens and Sparta.

Darius responded by sending troops led by his son-in-law across the Hellespont. However, a violent storm and harassment by the Thracians forced the troops to return to Persia. Seeking revenge on Athens and Eretria, Darius assembled another army of 20,000 men under his Admiral, Datis, and his nephew Artaphernes, who met success when they captured Eretria and advanced to Marathon. In 490 BCE, at the Battle of Marathon, the Persian army was defeated by a heavily armed Athenian army, with 9,000 men who were supported by 600 Plataeans and 10,000 lightly armed soldiers led by Miltiades. The defeat at Marathon marked the end of the first Persian invasion of Greece. Darius began preparations for a second force which he would command, instead of his generals; however, before the preparations were complete, Darius died, thus leaving the task to his son Xerxes.[7]

Family

Darius was the son of Hystaspes and the grandson of Arsames.[53] Darius married Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, with whom he had four sons: Xerxes, Achaemenes, Masistes and Hystaspes. He also married Artystone, another daughter of Cyrus, with whom he had two known sons, Arsames and Gobryas. Darius married Parmys, the daughter of Bardiya, with whom he had a son, Ariomardus. Furthermore, Darius married his niece Phratagune, with whom he had two sons, Abrokomas and Hyperantes. He also married another woman of the nobility, Phaidyme, the daughter of Otanes. It is unknown if he had any children with her. Before these royal marriages, Darius had married an unknown daughter of his good friend and lance carrier Gobryas from an early marriage, with whom he had three sons, Artobazanes, Ariabignes and Arsamenes.[54] Any daughters he had with her are not known. Although Artobazanes was Darius's first-born, Xerxes became heir and the next king through the influence of Atossa; she had great authority in the kingdom as Darius loved her the most of all his wives.

Death and succession


Tomb of Darius at Naqsh-e Rostam

After becoming aware of the Persian defeat at the Battle of Marathon, Darius began planning another expedition against the Greek city-states; this time, he, not Datis, would command the imperial armies.[7] Darius had spent three years preparing men and ships for war when a revolt broke out in Egypt. This revolt in Egypt worsened his failing health and prevented the possibility of his leading another army.[7] Soon afterwards, Darius died, after thirty days of suffering through an unidentified illness, partially due to his part in crushing the revolt, at about sixty-four years old.[55] In October 486 BCE, his body was embalmed and entombed in the rock-cut tomb at Naqsh-e Rostam, which he had been preparing.[7] An inscription on his tomb introduces him as "Great King, King of Kings, King of countries containing all kinds of men, King in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenian, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage."[7] A relief under his tomb portraying equestrian combat was later carved during the reign of the Sasanian King of Kings, Bahram II (r. 274–293 CE).[56]

Xerxes, the eldest son of Darius and Atossa, succeeded to the throne as Xerxes I; before his accession, he had contested the succession with his elder half-brother Artobarzanes, Darius's eldest son, who was born to his first wife before Darius rose to power.[57] With Xerxes's accession, the empire was again ruled by a member of the house of Cyrus.[7]

Government

Organization

Further information: Districts of the Achaemenid Empire



Volume of annual tribute per district, in the Achaemenid Empire.[58][59][60]

Early in his reign, Darius wanted to reorganize the structure of the empire and reform the system of taxation he inherited from Cyrus and Cambyses. To do this, Darius created twenty provinces called satrapies (or archi) which were each assigned to a satrap (archon) and specified fixed tributes that the satrapies were required to pay.[7] A complete list is preserved in the catalogue of Herodotus, beginning with Ionia and listing the other satrapies from west to east excluding Persis, which was the land of the Persians and the only province which was not a conquered land.[7] Tributes were paid in both silver and gold talents. Tributes in silver from each satrap were measured with the Babylonian talent.[7] Those paid in gold were measured with the Euboic talent.[7] The total tribute from the satraps came to an amount less than 15,000 silver talents.[7]

The majority of the satraps were of Persian origin and were members of the royal house or the six great noble families.[7] These satraps were personally picked by Darius to monitor these provinces. Each of the provinces was divided into sub-provinces, each having its own governor, who was chosen either by the royal court or by the satrap.[7] To assess tributes, a commission evaluated the expenses and revenues of each satrap.[7] To ensure that one person did not gain too much power, each satrap had a secretary, who observed the affairs of the state and communicated with Darius; a treasurer, who safeguarded provincial revenues; and a garrison commander, who was responsible for the troops.[7] Additionally, royal inspectors, who were the "eyes and ears" of Darius, completed further checks on each satrap.[7]

The imperial administration was coordinated by the chancery with headquarters at Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon with Bactria, Ecbatana, Sardis, Dascylium and Memphis having branches.[7] Darius kept Aramaic as the common language, which soon spread throughout the empire.[7] However, Darius gathered a group of scholars to create a separate language system only used for Persis and the Persians, which was called Aryan script and was only used for official inscriptions.[7] Before this, the accomplishments of the king were addressed in Persian solely through narration and hymns and through the "masters of memory".[61] Indeed, oral history continued to play an important role throughout the history of Iran.[61]

Economy

See also: Achaemenid coinage


Gold daric, minted at Sardis

Darius introduced a new universal currency, the daric, sometime before 500 BCE.[7] Darius used the coinage system as a transnational currency to regulate trade and commerce throughout his empire. The Daric was also recognized beyond the borders of the empire, in places such as Celtic Central Europe and Eastern Europe. There were two types of darics, a gold daric and a silver daric. Only the king could mint gold darics. Important generals and satraps minted silver darics, the latter usually to recruit Greek mercenaries in Anatolia. The daric was a major boost to international trade. Trade goods such as textiles, carpets, tools and metal objects began to travel throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. To further improve trade, Darius built the Royal Road, a postal system and Phoenician-based commercial shipping.

The daric also improved government revenues as the introduction of the daric made it easier to collect new taxes on land, livestock and marketplaces. This led to the registration of land which was measured and then taxed. The increased government revenues helped maintain and improve existing infrastructure and helped fund irrigation projects in dry lands. This new tax system also led to the formation of state banking and the creation of banking firms. One of the most famous banking firms was Murashu Sons, based in the Babylonian city of Nippur.[62] These banking firms provided loans and credit to clients.[63]

In an effort to further improve trade, Darius built canals, underground waterways and a powerful navy.[7] According to Herodotus, qanat irrigation technology was introduced to Egypt, which is supported by the historian Albert T. Olmstead.[64] He further improved and expanded the network of roads and way stations throughout the empire, so that there was a system of travel authorization for the King, satraps and other high officials, which entitled the traveller to draw provisions at daily stopping places.[65][7]

Religion

"By the grace of Ahuramazda am I king; Ahuramazda has granted me the kingdom."
— Darius, on the Behistun Inscription

Darius at Behistun


Darius on the Behistun Inscription reliefs


Crowned head of Darius at Behistun

While there is no general consensus in scholarship whether Darius and his predecessors had been influenced by Zoroastrianism,[66] it is well established that Darius was a firm believer in Ahura Mazda, whom he saw as the supreme deity.[66][67] However, Ahura Mazda was also worshipped by adherents of the (Indo-)Iranian religious tradition.[66][68] As can be seen at the Behistun Inscription, Darius believed that Ahura Mazda had appointed him to rule the Achaemenid Empire.[7]

Darius had dualistic philosophical convictions and believed that each rebellion in his kingdom was the work of druj, the enemy of Asha. Darius believed that because he lived righteously by Asha, Ahura Mazda supported him.[69] In many cuneiform inscriptions denoting his achievements, he presents himself as a devout believer, perhaps even convinced that he had a divine right to rule over the world.[70] However, his relationship with the deity was far more complex: in one inscription he writes "Ahura Mazda is mine, I am Ahura Mazda's".

In the lands that were conquered by his empire, Darius followed the same Achaemenid tolerance that Cyrus had shown and later Achaemenid kings would show.[7] He supported faiths and religions that were "alien" as long as the adherents were "submissive and peaceable", sometimes giving them grants from his treasury for their purposes.[7][71] He had funded the restoration of the Israelite temple which had originally been decreed by Cyrus, was supportive towards Greek cults which can be seen in his letter to Gadatas, and supported Elamite priests.[7] He had also observed Egyptian religious rites related to kingship and had built the temple for the Egyptian god, Amun.[7]

Building projects


Reconstruction drawing of the Palace of Darius in Susa


The ruins of Tachara palace in Persepolis

Early on, Darius and his advisors had the idea to establish new royal mansions at Susa and Persepolis because he was eager to demonstrate his newfound power and leave a lasting legacy. Since Cyrus's conquest, Susa's urban layout had remained unchanged, maintaining the layout from the Elamite era. Only during Darius's rule does the archeological evidence at Susa start showing any signs of a Achaemenid layout.[72]

During Darius's Greek expedition, he had begun construction projects in Susa, Egypt and Persepolis. The Darius Canal that connected the Nile to the Red Sea was constructed by him. It ran from present-day Zagazig in the eastern Nile Delta through Wadi Tumilat, Lake Timsah, and Great Bitter Lake, which are both close to present-day Suez. To open this canal, he travelled to Egypt in 497 BCE, where the inauguration was carried out with great fanfare and celebration. Darius also built a canal to connect the Red Sea and Mediterranean.[7][73] On this visit to Egypt he erected monuments and executed Aryandes on the charge of treason. When Darius returned to Persis, he found that the codification of Egyptian law had been finished.[7]

In Egypt, Darius built many temples and restored those that had previously been destroyed. Even though Darius was a believer of Ahura Mazda, he built temples dedicated to the Gods of the Ancient Egyptian religion. Several temples found were dedicated to Ptah and Nekhbet. Darius also created several roads and routes in Egypt. The monuments that Darius built were often inscribed in the official languages of the Persian Empire, Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian and Egyptian hieroglyphs. To construct these monuments, Darius employed a large number of workers and artisans of diverse nationalities. Several of these workers were deportees who had been employed specifically for these projects. These deportees enhanced the empire's economy and improved inter-cultural relations.[7] At the time of Darius's death construction projects were still under way. Xerxes completed these works and in some cases expanded his father's projects by erecting new buildings of his own.[74]


Egyptian statue of Darius I, as Pharaoh of the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt;[75] 522–486 BCE; greywacke; height: 2.46 m;[55] National Museum of Iran (Teheran)


Darius as Pharaoh of Egypt at the Temple of Hibis


Relief showing Darius I offering lettuces to the Egyptian deity Amun-Ra Kamutef, Temple of Hibis

See also

• History portal
• Iran portal
• Biography portal
• Dariush
• Darius the Mede
• List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources

Notes

1. According to Herodotus, Hystaspes was the satrap of Persis, although the French Iranologist Pierre Briant states that this is an error.[16] Richard Stoneman likewise considers Herodotus's account to be incorrect.[17]

References

1. "DĀḠESTĀN". Retrieved 29 December 2014.
2. Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994). The Making of the Georgian Nation. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20915-3. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
3. Pollard, Elizabeth (2015). Worlds Together, Worlds Apart concise edition vol.1. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-393-25093-0.
4. Schmitt 1994, p. 40.
5. Duncker 1882, p. 192.
6. Egerton 1994, p. 6.
7. Shahbazi 1994, pp. 41–50.
8. Kuhrt 2013, p. 197.
9. Frye 1984, p. 103.
10. Schmitt 1994, p. 53.
11. Zournatzi, Antigoni (2003). "The Apadana Coin Hoards, Darius I, and the West". American Journal of Numismatics. 15: 1–28. JSTOR 43580364.
12. Persepolis : discovery and afterlife of a world wonder. 2012. pp. 171–181.
13. "Behistun, minor inscriptions - Livius". http://www.livius.org.
14. Llewellyn-Jones 2013, p. 112.
15. Stoneman 2015, p. 189.
16. Briant 2002, p. 467.
17. Stoneman 2015, p. 20.
18. Cook 1985, p. 217.
19. Abbott 2009, p. 14.
20. Abbott 2009, p. 14–15.
21. Abbott 2009, p. 15–16.
22. Boardman 1988, p. 54.
23. "cylinder seal | British Museum". The British Museum.
24. "Darius' seal, photo - Livius". http://www.livius.org.
25. "The Darius Seal". British Museum.
26. Poolos 2008, p. 17.
27. Abbott 2009, p. 98.
28. Llewellyn-Jones 2017, p. 70.
29. Van De Mieroop 2003.
30. Allen, Lindsay (2005), The Persian Empire, London: The British Museum press, p. 42.
31. Waters 1996, pp. 11, 18.
32. Briant 2002, p. 115.
33. Briant 2002, pp. 115–116.
34. Briant 2002, p. 116.
35. Briant 2002, p. 131.
36. Abbott 2009, p. 99–101.
37. Goodnick Westenholz, Joan (2002). "A Stone Jar with Inscriptions of Darius I in Four Languages" (PDF). ARTA: 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2018.
38. Qahéri, Sépideh (2020). "Alabastres royaux d'époque achéménide". L’Antiquité à la BnF (in French). doi:10.58079/b8of.
39. Del Testa 2001, p. 47.
40. Abbott 2009, p. 129.
41. Sélincourt 2002, pp. 234–235.
42. Siliotti 2006, pp. 286–287.
43. Woolf et al. 2004, p. 686.
44. Miroslav Ivanov Vasilev. "The Policy of Darius and Xerxes towards Thrace and Macedonia" ISBN 90-04-28215-7 p. 70
45. Ross & Wells 2004, p. 291.
46. Beckwith 2009, pp. 68–69.
47. Boardman 1982, pp. 239–243.
48. Herodotus 2015, pp. 352.
49. Chaliand 2004, p. 16.
50. Grousset 1970, pp. 9–10.
51. Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington. "A companion to Ancient Macedonia" John Wiley & Sons, 2011. ISBN 1-4443-5163-X pp. 135–138, 343
52. Joseph Roisman; Ian Worthington (2011). A Companion to Ancient Macedonia. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 135–138. ISBN 978-1-4443-5163-7.
53. Briant 2002, p. 16.
54. Briant 2002, p. 113.
55. livius.org (2017). Darius the Great: Death. Thames & Hudson. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-500-20428-3.
56. Shahbazi 1988, pp. 514–522.
57. Briant 2002, p. 136.
58. Herodotus Book III, 89–95
59. Archibald, Zosia; Davies, John K.; Gabrielsen, Vincent (2011). The Economies of Hellenistic Societies, Third to First Centuries BC. Oxford University Press. p. 404. ISBN 978-0-19-958792-6.
60. "India Relations: Achaemenid Period – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
61. Briant 2002, pp. 126–127.
62. Farrokh 2007, p. 65.
63. Farrokh 2007, pp. 65–66.
64. Olmstead, A. T. (1948). History of the Persian Empire (PDF). The University of Chicago Press. p. 224. ISBN 0-226-62777-2.
65. Konecky 2008, p. 86.
66. Malandra 2005.
67. Briant 2002, p. 126.
68. Boyce 1984, pp. 684–687.
69. Boyce 1979, p. 55.
70. Boyce 1979, pp. 54–55.
71. Boyce 1979, p. 56.
72. Briant 2002, p. 165.
73. Spielvogel 2009, p. 49.
74. Boardman 1988, p. 76.
75. Razmjou, Shahrokh (1954). Ars orientalis; the arts of Islam and the East. Freer Gallery of Art. pp. 81–101.

Bibliography

• Abbott, Jacob (2009), History of Darius the Great: Makers of History, Cosimo, Inc., ISBN 978-1-60520-835-0
• Abbott, Jacob (1850), History of Darius the Great, New York: Harper & Bros
• Balentine, Samuel (1999), The Torah's vision of worship, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, ISBN 978-0-8006-3155-0
• Beckwith, Christopher (2009), Empires of the Silk Road: a history of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the present (illustrated ed.), Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2
• Bedford, Peter (2001), Temple restoration in early Achaemenid Judah (illustrated ed.), Leiden: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-11509-5
• Bennett, Deb (1998), Conquerors: The Roots of New World horsemanship, Solvang, CA: Amigo Publications, Inc., ISBN 978-0-9658533-0-9
• Boardman, John (1988), The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. IV (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-22804-6
• Boardman, John, ed. (1982). The Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 10: Persia, Greece, and the Western Mediterranean. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 239–243. ISBN 978-0-521-22804-6.
• Boyce, Mary (1979). Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Psychology Press. pp. 1–252. ISBN 978-0-415-23902-8.
• Boyce, M. (1984). "Ahura Mazdā". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 7. pp. 684–687.
• Briant, Pierre (2002). From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire. Eisenbrauns. pp. 1–1196. ISBN 978-1-57506-120-7.
• Chaliand, Gérard (2004), Nomadic empires: from Mongolia to the Danube (illustrated, annotated ed.), Transaction Publishers, ISBN 978-0-7658-0204-0
• Cook, J. M. (1985), "The Rise of the Achaemenids and Establishment of their Empire", The Median and Achaemenian Periods, Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 2, London: Cambridge University Press
• Del Testa, David (2001), Government leaders, military rulers, and political activists (illustrated ed.), Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-57356-153-2
• Duncker, Max (1882), Evelyn Abbott (ed.), The history of antiquity (Volume 6 ed.), R. Bentley & son
• Egerton, George (1994), Political memoir: essays on the politics of memory, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7146-3471-5
• Frye, Richard Nelson (1984). The History of Ancient Iran. C.H.Beck. pp. 1–411. ISBN 978-3-406-09397-5.
• Farrokh, Kaveh (2007), Shadows in the desert: ancient Persia at war, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84603-108-3[permanent dead link]
• Grousset, René (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. pp. 1–687. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
• Herodotus, ed. (2015). The Histories. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 352. ISBN 978-0-375-71271-5.
• Konecky, Sean (2008), Gidley, Chuck (ed.), The Chronicle of World History, Old Saybrook, CT: Grange Books, ISBN 978-1-56852-680-5
• Kuhrt, A. (2013). The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-01694-3.
• Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd (2013). King and Court in Ancient Persia 559 to 331 BCE. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1–272. ISBN 978-0-7486-7711-5.
• Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd (2017). "The Achaemenid Empire". In Daryaee, Touraj (ed.). King of the Seven Climes: A History of the Ancient Iranian World (3000 BCE – 651 CE). UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies. pp. 1–236. ISBN 978-0-692-86440-1.
• Malandra, William W. (2005). "Zoroastrianism i. Historical review up to the Arab conquest". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Moulton, James (2005), Early Zoroastrianism, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4179-7400-9[permanent dead link]
• Poolos, J (2008), Darius the Great (illustrated ed.), Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7910-9633-8
• Ross, William; Wells, H. G. (2004), The Outline of History: Volume 1 (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): Prehistory to the Roman Republic (illustrated ed.), Barnes & Noble Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7607-5866-3, retrieved 28 July 2011
• Safra, Jacob (2002), The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc, ISBN 978-0-85229-787-2
• Schmitt, Rudiger (1994). "Darius I. The Name". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VII, Fasc. 1. p. 40.
• Sélincourt, Aubrey (2002), The Histories, London: Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0-14-044908-2
• Shahbazi, A. Shapur (1988). "Bahrām II". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III, Fasc. 5. pp. 514–522.
• Shahbazi, Shapur (1994), "Darius I the Great", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 7, New York: Columbia University, pp. 41–50
• Siliotti, Alberto (2006), Hidden Treasures of Antiquity, Vercelli, Italy: VMB Publishers, ISBN 978-88-540-0497-9
• Spielvogel, Jackson (2009), Western Civilization: Seventh edition, Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, ISBN 978-0-495-50285-2
• Stoneman, Richard (2015). Xerxes: A Persian Life. Yale University Press. pp. 1–288. ISBN 978-1-57506-120-7.
• Tropea, Judith (2006), Classic Biblical Baby Names: Timeless Names for Modern Parents, New York: Bantam Books, ISBN 978-0-553-38393-5
• Van De Mieroop, Marc (2003), A History of the Ancient Near East: Ca. 3000–323 BC, "Blackwell History of the Ancient World" series, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-22552-2
• Waters, Matt (1996). "Darius and the Achaemenid Line". The Ancient History Bulletin. 10 (1). London: 11–18.
• Waters, Matt (2014). Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550–330 BCE. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–272. ISBN 978-1-107-65272-9.
• Woolf, Alex; Maddocks, Steven; Balkwill, Richard; McCarthy, Thomas (2004), Exploring Ancient Civilizations (illustrated ed.), Marshall Cavendish, ISBN 978-0-7614-7456-2

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Darius".
• Burn, A.R. (1984). Persia and the Greeks : the defence of the West, c. 546–478 B.C (2nd ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-1235-4.
• Ghirshman, Roman (1964). The Arts of Ancient Iran from Its Origins to the Time of Alexander the Great. New York: Golden Press.
• Hyland, John O. (2014). "The Casualty Figures in Darius' Bisitun Inscription". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History. 1 (2): 173–199. doi:10.1515/janeh-2013-0001. S2CID 180763595.
• Klotz, David (2015). "Darius I and the Sabaeans: Ancient Partners in Red Sea Navigation". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 74 (2): 267–280. doi:10.1086/682344. S2CID 163013181.
• Olmstead, Albert T. (1948). History of the Persian Empire, Achaemenid Period. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Vogelsang, W.J. (1992). The rise and organisation of the Achaemenid Empire : the eastern Iranian evidence. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09682-0.
• Warner, Arthur G. (1905). The Shahnama of Firdausi. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.
• Wiesehöfer, Josef (1996). Ancient Persia : from 550 BC to 650 AD. Azizeh Azodi, trans. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-85043-999-8.
• Wilber, Donald N. (1989). Persepolis : the archaeology of Parsa, seat of the Persian kings (Rev. ed.). Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press. ISBN 978-0-87850-062-8.

[admin]

Book Review: A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia by Manan Ahmed Asif
by LSE Editor
December 16th, 2016
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2016/ ... hmed-asif/

The Brahmin dynasty (c. 632–712), also known as the Chacha dynasty or Silaij dynasty, was a Hindu dynasty that ruled the Sindh region, succeeding the Rai dynasty. Most of the information about its existence comes from the Chach Nama, a historical account of the Chach-Brahmin dynasty.

-- Brahmin dynasty of Sindh, by Wikipedia

A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia is a critical literary, historical and intellectual analysis of a 13th century Persian text which tells the story of the Arab invasions of Sindh in the 7-8th centuries. Asad Abbasi finds the book an important re-examination of a key text which has been used to perpetuate the myth that Hindus and Muslims are historic enemies, despite offering a moral conduct for governance.

A Book of Conquest: The Chachnama and Muslim Origins in South Asia. Manan Ahmed Asif. Harvard University Press. 2016.

Introduction

Every origin story about Muslims in South Asia borrows something from the Chachnama, a thirteenth Century Persian manuscript authored by a settler in Uch, Sindh, named Ali Kufi. Kufi claimed his work was a translation an Arabic manuscript with historical narratives about Sindh in the seventh and eighth centuries.

It is the Chachnama that is cited when the ‘foreignness’ and savagery of Muslims is narrated by Hindu nationalists in India. It is Chachnama that is quoted when forgiveness and benevolence of Muslims is written by state historians in Pakistan. And poor old Chachnama was the reference point for writers of the British Empire in eighteenth and nineteenth century to explain the barbarism and destruction by Muslims.

Manan Ahmed Asif’s A Book of Conquest is a critical literary, historical and intellectual analysis of this historical text. The title is a perfect example of verbal irony, because Asif’s central argument is that the Chachnama is not a book of conquest.

Not a book of translation; neither a conquest narrative

Ali Kufi’s narrative begins with rise of Chach of Alor from a letter writer to King of Sindh. After Chach’s death his son, Dahar inherits the Kingdom and rules until his defeat by Umayyad General Muhammad Bin Qasim. Chachnama ends with Bin Qasim killing himself on the orders of the Caliph.

Asif implies that previous commentators have invariably selected, chopped, derided, ridiculed, and ignored parts of the text to fit their own agendas. But there are two common assumptions that still hold, primarily because of how Ali Kufi frames his work: first, the Chachnama is a translation of an Arabic manuscript, and second it is a book about conquest in eighth century Sindh. Asif rejects both these assumptions. He argues the Chachnama is an original book of political theory written in Persian addressed to the audience of thirteenth century Sindh.

Asif builds on work by Muzaffar Alam and A.C.S. Peacock in challenging the notion that the text is a translation. Alam, an eminent Mughal historian, proposes that translation was key part of ‘Persianisation’ i.e. process for the elites to move away from religious values towards more secular methods (p. 55). Peacock, Professor of History at St Andrews, views the translations of that period as ‘transcreations or commentarial interpretations’. Asif highlights that in the 13th century claiming a book’s Arabic heritage was customary but also very prudent for raising author’s profile. Kufi’s contemporaries such as Awfi and Juzjani are known to have employed similar methods. The historians of thirteenth century may call their own work translations but ‘saw pedagogy and self-reflection as key function of the texts’ (p. 60).

Asif also argues that the Chachnama does not fit the mould of other conquest narratives within Arabic historiography. These differences are stark: while the conquest narrative deals in proper names; the Chachnama gives ‘general attributes’ and uses generic citations (p. 63). The Arabic conquest literature focuses on plot of the story, description of land and regions; Kufi, instead, writes about ‘inner turmoil, deliberation, doubts and planning of the campaign’. The conquest narratives paint dismal picture of pre-Islamic times; Chachnama informs the reader of the wealth and resources in Sind before Muhammad Bin Qasim. Furthermore, unlike the conquest narratives, Kufi draws comparisons between the Hindu ruler Chach, and the Muslim ruler Bin Qasim (p. 66). Based on these differences, Asif contends that the Chachnama is not a conquest narrative but ‘an Indic political theory’ which is ‘deeply ingrained in the physical geography and spatial constraint of the thirteenth century’ (p. 67).

Asif’s interpretation differs significantly from those of earlier commentators. Whereas all the previous commentators wrote for a selected audience, Asif’s reading of the book, his argument and explanations, I am sure, will have universal appeal. With basic knowledge of South Asian history, or historical writings in general, one can enjoy Asif’s genealogical investigations. Asif explores, in detail, the encouraging and powerful women in the Chachnama and how in the 15th and 16th century the same women metamorphosed into symbols of transgression and deceit. In the midst of it all, Asif traverses through the streets of present day Uch.

City and the Book

In his book Curiosity, Alberto Manguel— borrowing from French scholar, Marc-Alain Ouaknin— demonstrates that physical structures of Venice in the sixteenth century left a mark on the Babylonian Talmud, the first edition of which was produced by the printer Daniel Bomberg. Manguel writes, ‘like every visitor to Venice Bomberg must have been struck by its inlaid, convoluted structure’ (Manguel 2015, p. 101). Look at the map of Venice and something ‘akin to the pages of Talmud appears’. In Manguel’s eyes the structural map of the city influenced the layout of the Talmud.

In a similar spirit, Asif writes Uch leaves a permanent mark on the Chachnama. He argues that one cannot understand the text without knowing the place it was written in. Asif conjoins intellectual history of Sind— as survived in the Chachnama— with physical memory as stored in graves, temples, wells, and palm trees. Asif asserts that it is possible to see how this unique environ of thirteenth century Uch influenced Ali Kufi’s narration.

[x]
Mausoleum of Bibi Jawindi, Uch. Credit: Shaun Metcalfe CC BY 2.0

Uch is not Venice by any means, but the intellectual environment mixed with constant wars and new patrons made it a destiny for writers (including Ali Kufi), philosophers and saints. The trees tell a story, the ramshackle shrines, dedicated to Sufi saints, tell yet another story. It is in this context that Asif suggests one has to understand 13th century Uch to interpret the Chachnama, and that this is evidence that the text is not a straightforward translation.

Political Theory

So what could a book aimed at thirteenth century elites, perhaps written to gain favour of the ruler of Sindh, offer as political theory?

Asif argues that the Chachnama’s true essence is its advice on governance. He writes that it:

‘creates a moral genealogy for rule, it is text that argues for a framework for understanding difference (most critically, religious difference), and it is a text that demonstrates five hundred years of interconnected lives in the Sindh-Gujarat-Oman-Yemen-world’ (p. 76).

Through series of letters between characters, the Chachnama deals with issues of morality, the role of advisors (p. 82), succession (p. 83), immoral choices (p. 86), and policies of governance (p. 86-90). Far from being a conquest narrative, Asif concludes the text falls into the genre of Persian advice literature (p. 92), although can also be seen as ‘Indic political theory’ due to its similarities with the ancient Indian texts Arthashastra and Panchatantra (p. 96).

With the rise of sectarian conflicts, nationalism, violence and the alt right across the globe, the Chachnama’s key message to the governing elites – hitherto buried by misrepresentation and political interpretations – remains relevant today: only through dialogue one can deal with differences (p. 101).

Conclusion

The book is not without weaknesses. For example, Asif discusses the ‘historians of Sindh’, as distinct from historians of Pakistani state, albeit too briefly leaving scope for further exploration. Although, he hints at it, he largely misses the opportunity to explore the ‘social function of the text’ (p. 62-63) in present day Sindh.

Throughout the book, Asif talks with several people in Uch and thereabouts. In the last chapter, Asif recasts his meeting with ‘another historian who brings Uch to light’ (pg 182). In their long conversation, the ‘historian’ tells Asif that Uch was never conquered. To which, Asif responds that British, Genghis Khan, Iltutmish, Tughluq, Humayun, Akbar all conquered Uch (p. 184). After introspection, however, Asif begins to question these historical facts: “This was the landscape that gave birth to the Indic Chachnama…the story of an always conquered Uch could not explain how this text came to be written in the first place and why it survived’ (p. 184).

It is ironic that Asif, who is trying to demystify stories of origins of Muslims in South Asia, ends up seemingly accepting factually inaccurate stories about Uch. But this is not the same as believing that Hindus and Muslims have been forever at war.

The falsehood that Hindus and Muslims are enemies who have been engaged in conflict since time immemorial is perpetuated by centres of power to establish legitimacy. The British used it to legitimise colonisation, for Pakistani state it provides legitimacy for military expenditure and for Hindu nationalists it becomes the basis for delegitimising last one thousand years of Indian history. Asif’s new volume seeks to challenge the misinterpretations of the Chachnama that has arisen from its use in these instrumental narratives.

This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the South Asia @ LSE blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting.

About the Author

Screenshot 2015-07-20 at 23.43.49Asad Abbasi has a Masters degree in Political Economy of Late Development from LSE. Currently, he is researching conceptual frameworks of development.

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Khyber Pass
by Wikipedia
Accessed 12/11/24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khyber_Pass

د خیبر درہ (Pashto)
درۂ خیبر (Urdu)
[x]
The pass connects Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar.
Elevation 1,070 m (3,510 ft)
Traversed by N-5 National Highway; Khyber Pass Railway
Location Between Landi Kotal and Jamrud
Range White Mountains (Spīn Ghar, Safēd Kōh)
Coordinates 34.07570°N 71.20394°E
Khyber Pass د خیبر درہ (Pashto) درۂ خیبر (Urdu) is located in Khyber PakhtunkhwaKhyber Pass د خیبر درہ (Pashto) درۂ خیبر (Urdu)

The Khyber Pass (Urdu: درۂ خیبر[pronunciation?]; Pashto: د خيبر دره, romanized: De Xēber Dara, lit. 'Valley of Khyber' [d̪ə xebər d̪ara]) is a mountain pass in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, on the border with the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. It connects the town of Landi Kotal to the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud by traversing part of the White Mountains. Since it was part of the ancient Silk Road, it has been a vital trade route between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent and a strategic military choke point for various states that controlled it. The Khyber Pass is considered one of the most famous mountain passes in the world.[1]

Geography

Following Asian Highway 1 (AH1), the summit of the pass at the town of Landi Kotal is five kilometres (three miles) inside Pakistan, descending 460 m (1,510 ft) into the Valley of Peshawar at Jamrud, about 30 km (19 mi) from the Afghan border by traversing part of the Spin Ghar mountains.[2]

History

[x]
The Khyber Pass with the fortress of Ali Masjid in 1848

[x]
Afghan chiefs and a British political officer posed at Jamrud Fort at the mouth of the Khyber Pass in 1878

[x]
The British Indian Army's elephant battery of heavy artillery along the Khyber Pass at Campbellpur, 1895

Historical invasions of the Indian subcontinent have been predominantly through the Khyber Pass, such as those of Cyrus, Darius I, Genghis Khan, and later Mongols such as Duwa, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek. Prior to the Kushan era, the Khyber Pass was not a widely used trade route.[3]

The pass has been traversed by military expeditions launched by empires such as the Achaemenids and Sassanids, as well as by nomadic invaders from Central Asia, including the Saka, Yuezhi, and White Huns.[2] [b][u][size=120]Indian empires rarely extended their control beyond the pass, with the Maurya king Čandragupta being an exception.[2]

The Khyber Pass has witnessed the spread of Greek influence into India and the expansion of Buddhism in the opposite direction.[2] Despite military activities, trade continued to thrive there.[2][/u][/b][/size] The Khyber Pass became a critical part of the Silk Road, a major trade route from East Asia to Europe.[4][5]

The Parthian Empire fought for control of passes such as this to profit from the trade in silk, jade, rhubarb, and other luxuries moving from China to Western Asia and Europe. Through the Khyber Pass, Gandhara (in present-day Pakistan) became a regional center of trade connecting Bagram in Afghanistan to Taxila in Pakistan, adding Indian luxury goods such as ivory, pepper, and textiles to the Silk Road commerce.[6]: 74 

During the Islamic period, Muslim rulers, including Mahmud Ghaznavi, Muhammad of Ghor, and Babur, used the Khyber and nearby passes for their invasions of Indian subcontinent.[2] The Mughals attempted to control the pass but faced resistance from local tribes.[2] Ahmad Shah Durrani was the last major Islamic conqueror to cross the pass, though his successors' campaigns had limited lasting impact.[2] Finally, Sikhs under Ranjit Singh captured the Khyber Pass in 1834.[6]

[x]
Railways through the impregnable Khyber Pass,1939. Digitized by the Panjab Digital Library.

In the 19th century, the British East India Company aimed to secure the Khyber Pass against potential Russian threats.[2] The region was contested during the Anglo-Afghan Wars, with control shifting between the British, Sikhs, and Afghans.[2] After the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880), the Khyber region came under British control, and the policy of paying local tribes to maintain the route's security was implemented.[2] The British invested in infrastructure development, building roads, railways, and telegraph lines through the pass.[2] For strategic reasons, after the First World War, the government of British India built a heavily engineered railway through the Pass.[2] The Khyber Pass Railway, from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened in 1925.[2] A common phrase during British colonial period described the length of what was then British India as "Khyber to Kanyakumari".[7][8]

[x]
During World War II, concrete dragon's teeth were erected on the valley floor due to British fears of a German tank invasion of India.[9]

[x]
Bab-e-Khyber, the entrance gate of the Khyber Pass

Following the partition of British India in 1947, the Khyber Pass became part of Pakistan. Passenger services through the pass have been intermittent, with the Khyber Steam Safari, a joint venture between a private company and Pakistan Railways, operating in the 1990s.[2]

The Pass became widely known to thousands of Westerners and Japanese who traveled it in the days of the hippie trail, taking a bus or car from Kabul to the Afghan border. At the Pakistani frontier post, travellers were advised not to wander away from the road, as the location was a barely controlled Federally Administered Tribal Area. Then, after customs formalities, a quick daylight drive through the Pass was made. Monuments left by British Indian Army units from the time of British colonialism, as well as hillside forts, could be viewed from the highway.

The area of the Khyber Pass has been connected with a counterfeit arms industry that makes various types of weapons known to gun collectors as Khyber Pass copies using local steel and blacksmiths' forges. To the north of the Khyber Pass lies the country of the Shalmani tribe and Mullagori tribe. To the south is Afridi Tirah, while the inhabitants of villages in the Pass itself are Afridi clansmen. Throughout the centuries, Pashtun clans, particularly the Afridis and the Afghan Shinwari, have regarded the Pass as their own preserve and have levied a toll on travellers for safe conduct. Since this has long been their main source of income, resistance to challenges to the Shinwari's authority has often been fierce.

Recent history

[x]
The pass was serviced by the Khyber Pass Railway, currently closed.

During the War in Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass was a major route for resupplying military armament and food to NATO forces in the Afghan theater of conflict since the US started the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Almost 80 percent of the NATO and US supplies that were brought in by road were transported through the Khyber Pass. It was also used to transport civilians from the Afghan side to the Pakistani one. Until the end of 2007, the route had been relatively safe, since the tribes living there (mainly the Afridi, a Pashtun tribe) were paid by the Pakistani government to keep the area safe.

In January 2009, Pakistan sealed off the bridge as part of a military offensive against Taliban guerrillas. This military operation was mainly focused on Jamrud, a district on the Khyber road. The target was to “dynamite or bulldoze homes belonging to men suspected of harboring or supporting Taliban militants or carrying out other illegal activities”.[10]

This increasingly unstable situation in northwest Pakistan made the US and NATO broaden supply routes, through Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). Even the option of supplying material through the Iranian far southeastern port of Chabahar was considered.[11]

In 2010, the already complicated relationship with Pakistan (always accused by the US of hosting the Taliban in this border area without reporting it) became tougher after the NATO forces, under the pretext of mitigating the Taliban's power over this area, executed an attack with drones over the Durand line, passing the frontier of Afghanistan and killing three Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan answered by closing the pass on 30 September which caused a convoy of several NATO trucks to queue at the closed border.[12] This convoy was attacked by extremists apparently linked to Al Qaida which caused the destruction of more than 29 oil tankers and trucks and the killing of several soldiers.[13]

In August 2011, the activity at the Khyber pass was again halted by the Khyber Agency administration due to the more possible attacks of the insurgency over the NATO forces, which had suffered a period of large number of assaults over the trucks heading to supply the NATO and ISAF coalitions all over the frontier line.[14]

Gallery

[x]
Khyber Pass Gateway southbound towards Peshawar

[x]
Typical Pakistani transport truck and passengers

[x]
Washed out bridge

[x]
The Khyber Railway. With a Pakistan Railways HGS 2-8-0 at front and rear a charter train climbs the Khyber Pass through a series of zig-zags to gain height

[x]
An advertisement card from 1910 depicting Khaiber Pass

[x]
A camp of the British Indian Army near the Khyber Pass (c. 1920)

[x]
Mountain passes of Afghanistan

Cultural references

A number of locations around the world have been named after the Khyber Pass:

• A steep and twisting minor road in Mugdock Country Park near Glasgow, Scotland. The road is a landmark along the West Highland Way and is popular among local road cyclists.[15]
• A suburb of Civil Lines, Delhi, India.[16][17][18]
• Khyber Pass Road, a major road in the suburb of Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand (Google Earth view)
• An artificial rockwork feature at East Park, Kingston upon Hull, UK.[19][20]
• Khyber Road in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland.[21]
• A steep and twisting road up the West Cliff at Whitby, UK.
• A pedestrian alley in Stromness, Orkney, Scotland[22]
• Khyber Pass Pub in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Khyber Himalayan Resort and Spa in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.
• A mountain bike trail connecting the Top of the World trail at Whistler, British Columbia to the Whistler Creekside Village.
• A subway in the King's Cross St Pancras tube station. After the King's Cross fire in November 1987, it was replaced.[23]

Other references include the following:

• The bus journey on this road was belle-lettered very beautifully, and a part of its first act, in the selective memoir Deshe Bideshe (1948) by Syed Mujtaba Ali.
• Before the partition of India, the pass was mentioned as part of common Hindustani phrase used to describe the length of colonial India, "Khyber sé Kanyakumari".[8]
• 'Khyber Pass' is Cockney rhyming slang meaning 'arse'. This use is alluded to in the 1968 film Carry On Up the Khyber.
• In the 1975 movie The Man Who Would Be King, the character Peachy Carnehan tells Rudyard Kipling how he and his comrade-in-arms Danny Dravot had fought under Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts yard by yard through the Khyber Pass during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878-1880
• The podcast Twilight Histories has an episode called "Napoleon in Afghanistan" which partly takes place in the Khyber Pass.
• The Vampire Weekend song "M79" references the Khyber Pass.
• The Tom Cochrane song "Life Is a Highway" (covered by Rascal Flatts and others) references the Khyber Pass.
• The album Rio Grande Blood by Ministry (2006) has a song called "Khyber Pass" which references it as a possible hiding place for then missing and at large Osama bin Laden. This song was also featured at the end of the film The Hurt Locker.
• The song "Red War" by Probot, featuring Max Cavalera on vocals, mentions the pass.
• British rock band Pink Floyd references the Khyber in their song "Up the Khyber", featured on the soundtrack to the film More.
• In an episode of the cartoon series The World of Commander McBragg titled “Khyber Pass”, the eponymous commander has to fend off ten thousand screaming tribesmen in the Khyber Pass.
• Parts of the 1985 Jay McInerney book Ransom take place in or near the Khyber Pass.
• The Khyber pass features in several of Rudyard Kipling's poems: it appears by name in "The Ballad of the King's Jest",[24] as "the Pass" in "Arithmetic on the Frontier",[24] and semi-fictionalized as the Tongue of Jagai in "The Ballad of East and West".[25]
• In the 2023 movie Ghosted the farmer Cole played by Chris Evans is abducted to the Khyber Pass and rescue by CIA operative Sadie played by Ana de Armas as shown by the location card at 35'15", although the film was actually filmed in New Mexico.[26][27]

See also

• Ali Masjid
• Bab-e-Khyber
• Battle of Ali Masjid
• Battle of Khyber Pass
• Bolan Pass
• Carry On... Up the Khyber, film
• Dasht-e Yahudi
• Dorah Pass
• Durand Line
• Khyber Agency
• Khyber Pass Copy
• Khyber Pass Railway
• Khyber Pass Economic Corridor
• Khyber Rifles
• Khyber train safari

References

1. Wright, Colin. "Maliks of Khyber Pass". http://www.bl.uk. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
2. Wilde, Andreas (September 27, 2022). "KHYBER PASS". Brill – via referenceworks.brillonline.com.
3. Tarn, William Woodthorpe (2010). The Greeks in Bactria and India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108009416. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
4. Insight Guides Silk Road. Apa Publications (UK) Limited. 2017. p. 424. ISBN 9781786716996.
5. Arnold, Guy (2014). World Strategic Highways. Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 9781135933739.
6. The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion. Union Square Press. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4027-5696-2.
7. Nalwa, Vanit (2009). Hari Singh Nalwa, "champion of the Khalsaji" (1791-1837). New Delhi: Manohar. pp. 318–. ISBN 978-81-7304-785-5.
8. Rajghatta, Chidanand (27 June 2017). "Attock to Cuttack, PM Narendra Modi causes a stir". The Economic Times. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
9. "Introducing The Khyber Pass". Lonelyplanet.com. 2009-03-24. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
10. Oppel Jr, Richard A. (2 January 2009). "Pakistan Briefly Reopens Key NATO Supply Route". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
11. "Pakistan and Afghanistan". Institute for the Study of War. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
12. "Pakistan Reopens Khyber Pass To US/NATO". Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
13. Karin Brulliard (October 9, 2010). "Pakistan reopens border to NATO supply trucks". Washington Post Foreign Service. Archived from the original on 9 February 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
14. Ahmad Nabi (August 17, 2011). "Nato supplies via Khyber Pass halted due to security". Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
15. "Khyber Pass Trail at Mugdock Park". Trailforks. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
16. Khyber Pass Map Archived 2011-10-30 at the Wayback Machine. Mapsofindia.com (2013-03-01). Retrieved on 2013-07-12.
17. "Khyber Pass Delhi". Google Maps. Retrieved 2013-07-12.
18. "MGF City , Khyber Pass , North Delhi". Archived from the original on 2012-03-10. Retrieved 2011-05-19.
19. "East's Eden". Kingston upon Hull City Council. September 2002. Archived from the original on 2013-05-17.
20. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1001519)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
21. McNally, Frank (20 February 2013). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
22. "OpenStreetMap". OpenStreetMap. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
23. "New subway to replace Kings Cross "Khyber Pass"". This Is Local London. 12 August 2004.
24. National Geographic Society (2011-11-21). "The Khyber Pass". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2019-08-07. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
25. "The Ballad of East and West". http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
26. "Where was 'Ghosted' filmed? All 'Ghosted' filming locations". 21 April 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
27. "Where was Ghosted filmed?". Retrieved 2023-04-27.

Further reading

• Molesworth, Lt-Gen. G.N. (1962). Afghanistan 1919 : an Account of Operations in the Third Afghan War. Asia Publishing House. OCLC 7233999.

External links

Khyber Pass at Wikipedia's sister projects

• Definitions from Wiktionary
• Media from Commons
• News from Wikinews
• Quotations from Wikiquote
• Texts from Wikisource
• Textbooks from Wikibooks
• Resources from Wikiversity
• Travel information from Wikivoyage
• History of Khyber Pass, Pakistan (archived)
• Twilight histories, Napoleon in Afghanistan (archived)

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Kanhadade Prabandha
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/21/24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanhadade_Prabandha

Padmanabha’s identity is not explicitly mentioned as a specific individual with a known background or affiliation, except for being a court poet of Akhairaja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Visalnagar. Akhairaja is said to be a descendant of the poem’s hero Raval Kanhadade, through Viramade, Megalde, Ambaraja, and Khetsi.

It is worth noting that the search results do not provide a detailed biography of Padmanabha, and his personal identity remains somewhat obscure.

-- Padmanabha, by Google AI

Kānhaḍade Prabandha is a book by Indian poet Padmanābha written in 1455, in a western Apabhramsha dialect. The book tells the story of Raval Kanhadade (Kanhadadeva), the Chahamana ruler of Jalore.

Textual history

Padmanabha wrote Kanhadade Prabandha in 1455, in a western Apabhramsha dialect. The author was a court-poet of Akhairaja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Visalnagar. Akahiraja is said to be a descendant of the poem's hero Raval Kanhadade, through Viramade, Megalde, Ambaraja, and Khetsi.[1]

The German Indologist Georg Bühler was the first modern scholar to write about this treatise. He noticed its manuscript in a Jain library at Tharad.[2]

Kanhadade Prabandha has been praised as the finest work in Dingal (literary form of the Old Western Rajasthani or Old Gujarati), and one of the greatest Indian works written during the medieval period by eminent scholars like Muni Jinavijaya, K. M. Munshi, Dasharatha Sharma and K.B. Vyas.[3][4]

The work was translated into English by V. S. Bhatnagar, a professor of History at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.[5]

Plot

At the beginning of the text, Padmanabha invokes Ganesha and Sarasvati to grant him the ability to recount Kanhadade's story.[6] He extolls the Sonagiri Chauhan lineage and their capital city of Jalore.[7]

Ulugh Khan's raid of Gujarat

The author then describes the conquest of Gujarat by the Alauddin Khalji, the Muslim ruler of the Delhi Sultanate: Gujarat was ruled by the Baghela king Rao Karnade.

Karna II,1296 – c. 1304) was the last ruler of the Kingdom of Gujarat in India. Little is known about his life except his defeat against Alauddin Khalji of the Delhi Sultanate. Alauddin's forces ransacked his kingdom in 1299, forcing him to flee Gujarat. Karna seems to have gained control of at least some part of his territory in the subsequent years. However, a second invasion in 1304 resulted in the end of the Vaghela dynasty.

Variations of his name include Karnadeva (in Vaghela inscriptions), Rai Karan, and Karan Dev (in vernacular literature). He is also known as Karna II to distinguish him from the Chaulukya king Karna. The 15th century epic poem Kanhadade Prabandha calls him "Rao Karnade". The 16th century Portuguese historian João de Barros calls him "Galacarna"....

Aside from his defeat against Alauddin Khalji, very little is known about his reign.

According to medieval chronicles (such as Merutunga's Vichara-shreni and Padmanābha's Kanhadade Prabandha), Karna had abducted the wife of his minister Madhava and killed Madhava's brother. In revenge, Madhava instigated the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji to invade his kingdom. In 1299, Alauddin invaded Gujarat, which was one of the wealthiest regions of India.

The invasion appears to have been a surprise for Karna, as Alauddin's army captured Gujarat easily in a very short time. This suggests that either Karna was unpopular among his subjects, or he had an ineffective military and administrative setup. The Jain chronicler Jinaprabha Suri states that Ulugh Khan's forces defeated Karna's army at Ashapalli (present-day Ahmedabad).

Jinaprabha Suri was a renowned Jain scholar and chronicler who lived during the Sultanate period, specifically during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq (1325-1351 CE). He was born in the Tambi clan of the Shrimal Jain community in Mohilvadi, Gujarat.

Jinaprabha Suri is best known for his magnum opus, Vividha Tirtha Kalpa, a widely cited Jain text composed in the 14th century CE. This compilation of about 60 Kalpas (sections) provides accounts of major Jain Tirthas (pilgrimage sites) throughout India. The text is an example of the tirtha-mala genre, which documents Jain pilgrimage sites and practices.

Jinaprabha Suri’s poetic flair and knowledge of various Indian religious schools impressed Muhammad bin Tughluq, who consulted him on religious matters. The Sultan even called upon Jinaprabha Suri to settle disputes and recover a stolen image from his treasury. This recognition highlights the significant role Jain scholars like Jinaprabha Suri played in facilitating interfaith dialogue and understanding during the Sultanate period.

Jinaprabha Suri was initiated as a Jain monk at the age of 8 and became an Acharya (teacher) in the Kharatara Gaccha sect at 23. His travels took him across India, and he documented contemporary events and oral traditions. Although some Kalpas (sections) in Vividha Tirtha Kalpa contain dates, most are undated, ranging from Samvat 1364 to Samvat 1389.

Jinaprabha Suri’s work, Vividha Tirtha Kalpa, remains an important source for understanding Jain pilgrimage practices, Tirthas, and the cultural exchange between Jainism and Islam during the Sultanate period. His contributions have had a lasting impact on Jain literature and scholarship.

-- Jain Scholar Jinaprabha Suri, by Google AI

According to the 14th century writer Isami, Karna weighed his options: putting up a fight against the invaders or retiring into a fortress. His ministers advised him to leave the country and return after the departure of the invaders, given his lack of war preparation....

Ultimately, Karna fled to Devagiri, the capital of the neighbouring Yadava kingdom. A section of the Delhi army pursued him. The 14th century chronicler Isami states that he was refused asylum by the Yadavas, and had to seek shelter from the Kakatiya ruler Rudradeva. Meanwhile, the Delhi army plundered the wealthy cities of Gujarat, including the capital Anahilavada (modern Patan), Khambhat, Surat and Somnath.

Subsequently, Karna seems to have recaptured at least some part of Gujarat, although is not known when exactly he returned to the throne.

An inscription found at the Sampla village in Gujarat attests that Karna was ruling at Patan [the capital of Gujarat for approximately 650 years, from 746 to 1411] on 4 August 1304.The Jain author Merutunga also states that he ruled up to 1304 CE. The 14th century Muslim chronicler Isami also suggests that Karna managed to regain his power. According to Isami, Alauddin had handed over the administration of the newly-captured Chittor Fort to Malik Shahin in 1303. But sometime later, Malik Shahin fled the fort because he was afraid of Karna, who ruled the neighbouring territory.

During the invading army's return journey to Delhi, its Mongol soldiers had rebelled against their commanders over their share of the loot from Gujarat. Some of these rebel Mongols appear to have sought asylum from Karna: his 1304 inscription [???] indicates that the Mongol officers Balchaq and Shadi held high positions under in his administration.

Karna lost his throne permanently after a second invasion from Delhi in 1304. According to Amir Khusrau's poem Ashiqa, the invasion resulted from a request by Karna's former wife Kamala Devi, who had been captured by Alauddin's forces during the first invasion. Eight years after being inducted into Alauddin's harem, Kamala Devi requested Alauddin to get her daughter Devala Devi from Gujarat. Although Karna agreed to the demand, Alauddin ordered his army to invade Gujarat for a second time. Ashiqa is not historically reliable, but some of the later medieval writers present its narrative as history. Other medieval chroniclers give different accounts of this incident, some of them omitting the bit about Kamala Devi's request. According to the 16th century chronicler Firishta, Karna escaped to the Yadava kingdom, where Ramachandra of Devagiri gave him the principality of Baglana. Karna was defeated during Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Devagiri, and his daughter Devala was captured and taken to Delhi. According to one account, he fled towards Devagiri, but was denied asylum there, and ultimately sought shelter from the Kakatiyas in Warangal.

The Jain writer Kakka Suri, in his Nabhi-nandana-jinoddhara-prabandha (1336), describes the end of Karna as follows: "On account of his [Alauddin's] prowess, Karṇa, the ruler of Gurjaratrā, fled away in all haste and having wandered about in many kingdoms died the death of a pauper." No concrete information is available about Karna's death or his descendants.

-- Karna II, by Wikipedia

One day, Rao Karande humiliated his favorite minister Madhava, killed Madhava's brother Keshava, and abducted Madhava's wife. Madhava swore revenge and instigated Alauddin Khalji to invade Gujarat.[7]

FN 7: Aditya Behl 2012, p. 190. Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379–1545. Oxford University Press.

Princess Furuzan and Prince Viramade of Jalor

Such a fantasy about the intersection of geography, desire, and the body is also evident from a fictive romantic liaison between another of 'Alauddin's children, the Princess Furuzan, and an Indian ruler, Prince Viramade of Jalor, set within the history of the siege and conquest of Jalor and expressed in verse by a Rajput poet. The Kanhadade Prabandha (KP) of Padmanabha, composed in 1455 in an western dialect of Apabhramsa, reecounts events that occurred almost a century and a half before the poet's time. Padmanabha was a Nagar Brahmin attacked to the court of Akhairaja, the Chauhan Rajput king of Visalnagar. Although information about both the poet and his patron is limimted, it seems from the text that they were living in the small town of Visalnagar after the treacherous capture of Jalor whom 'Alauddin Khalji defeated in 1311. In form, the poem is a prabandha-kavya, the name for a courtly ornate poem in Sanskrit, Prakrit, or Apabhramsa recounting the life and deeds of a king or hero. Genealogy, political memory, and loss are invoked in this ideal biography as Padmanabha remembers the events that led to the passing of Jalor into Turkish hands and the death of Raval Kanhadade, the heroic ancestor of his patron, Akhairaja.

The text begins with an invocation to Ganesa, the elephant-headed god who removes obstacles, and Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. The poet, Padmanabha Pandita, asks them to grant him a clear intellect so that he may recount the heroic story of Raval Kanhadade (KP 1). He praises the Sonagiri Chauhan lineage and their capital as the city of gold, (kanayacala), named after the local yellow rock that forms the hill and from which the fortress of Jalor is hewn. Then he moves into a narrative of the events of 1296, when 'Alauddin Khalji ascended the throne of Delhi after his conquest of Gujarat, and the poet begins his story with the cause of that war. According to him, the Baghela king of Gujarat one day insults Madhava, his favorite minister, and Madhava swears vengeance upon his former master. He goes to Delhi, where 'Alauddin interrogates him about conditions in Gujarat, to which he responds.

"The kshatriya dharma has vanished from there. Rao Karnade has become insane and has developed an infatuation for the pleasures of the body. Every day he takes the aphrodisiac Vachhanaga, and struts about with an unsheathed sword in his hand!... The Rai first humiliated me. Then he killed my brother Kesava, and even took away his wife and kept her in his palace. Such a provocation is beyond toleration! I will wage war against Gujarat and pray you to send an army with me for the purpose. I will attack the Hindus, drive them into jungles, killing them and enslaving them!... Either I will conquer Gujarat by force or perish" (KP 3).

In this Indian view of polity, what Madhava is advocating is the sultan's use of a feud in a neighboring king's realm as an occasion to invade his kingdom. Further, the ideology that is invoked to condemn Karnadeva is his deviation from the dharma of a warrior or ksatriya, which would involve this protecting the wives of other men rather than preying on them. In the poetics of this non-Persian text, the casus belli is a woman, specifically the woman of his brother Kesava. By killing Kesava, Karnadeva has insulted his family's honor, which Madhava will avenge. Moreover, in the classical Indian system of polity to which Padmanabha refers, the king's relationship to the land is that of a pati or husband to the country, which is represented as the submissive female awaiting domination.

'Alauddin enthusiastically agrees to Madhava's plan and sends envoys to ask safe conduct from all of the Rajput kings through whose territory his army would pass on its way to Gujarat. Kanhadade of Jalor alone refuses, on the grounds that allowing the Muslim army to pass would contravene the dharma of a warrior:

"This is contrary to our dharma! Kings do not give passage when by doing so villages are devastated, people are enslaved, ears of women torn (for their ornaments), and cows and Brahmanas are tortured" (KP 4).

Kanhadade is thus made into the good king, the one who is a protector of right religion, cows and Brahmins, as well as the honor and safety of the women of his realm. The conflict between him and the forces of Islam is thus set up at the very beginning in terms of narrative causality; the cause of the historical quarrel will be the conflict between religious truth and evil conduct rather than the political exigencies of control over territory. This single narrative cause simultaneously legitimates rulership and introduces the events from which the story flows.

The grand army of cavalry, elephants, and foot soldiers, equipped with the latest technology of war -- siege towers and catapults for flinging naphtha over fortress walls -- marches through Rajput territory. On his way to Gujarat, Ulugh Khan destroys in a brutal battle the only Rajput who offers him any resistance, the brave chief Batada of Modasa. When he reaches the city of Anhilvara Pattan, the Baghela capital, King Karna flees the fort in the dead of night. The fort is destroyed, its temples torn down and made into mosques, and the rule of Sultan 'Alauddin proclaimed everywhere. Ulugh Khan goes on to Somnath and sacks the town, emptying the prosperous and fertile land in the wake of his marauding army. When the Muslims come to the temple of Siva in the center of the town, all the priests give up their lives to defend the image of God. The stone lingam is dispatched to Delhi to be smashed as an object lesson in the ideological superiority of Islam. Meanwhile, in Jalor, Siva and Parvati appear to Kanhadade in a dream and tell him that God is being taken from Somnath through his territory (desa). He must rescue the image.

On his way back to Delhi, Ulugh Khan has the first of several military encounters with the Chauhan Rajputs of Jalor. Ravala Kanhadade sends his nobles as envoys to spy out the camp at Gujarat, which is described as one of the grandest military assemblages. With the army of Gujarat are hundreds of thousands of lamenting Hindu prisoners, being taken to Delhi as slaves. The Rajputs muster all the Rais and Ranas from the neighboring principalities and prepare to attack Ulugh Khan's army, who are described as asuras or demons. The goddess of the Gujarat fort, Asapuri Devi, gives her blessing, and Kanhadade and his brother Maladeo rout the Muslims. They take alive two prominent nobles, Sa'dullah Khan and Sih Malik, and recover the Siva-lingam from Ulugh Khan's clutches. The poet adds a commentary on the effects of punya, meritorious action:

Indeed, the Chauhan clan has unmeasured punya to its credit. It is on account of punya that Raval Kanhadade destroyed the Mlecchas (a derogatory name for Muslims). It is indeed due to punya, the merit earned for good and virtuous acts, that people enjoy rich food and drinks, wealth grows in the house, and one marries a lady of good lineage.... Those without punya roam about confused and confounded... It is by virtue of punya that grain and provisions in one's house are never exhausted. It is due to punya that one is blessed with a son. Again, it is on account of punya that the king gives honor and the Pradhans (noblemen) become favorable....At the house of a punyavanta, all the three times of the day -- morning, noon, and evening -- one hundred and eight auspicious rituals and ceremonies are performed (KP 25-26ff).

The meritorious action of the king underpins an entire ritual economy of virtue and right behavior. It is only through good actions that merit can be gathered, but once one has it, then all sorts of natural and human bounty flow from it: the kingdom works perfectly, one's house is never empty of food, a son is born who can perform the funeral rites that let his parents cross over to the further shore, and the proper order or dharma of the universe is maintained through the 108 rituals performed daily at the house of a person who possesses merit.

At the center of this ritual economy is God, who is embodied in the stone image seized by the Muslims from Somnath. Raval Kanhadade, the god of flesh who keeps the ritual order working, goes to the camp and brings the lingam into Jalor with all due reverence. He bathes it with his own hands and adorns it with sandal paste, flowers, and vermillion. Pieces carved out of the lingam then bless the entire territory (desa) with embodiments of God:

Five images were carved out of the Ekalingam, which saves one from falling into hell and from dire troubles and afflictions; there is no sixth one like them. One of these was ceremoniously installed at Soratha and another at Lohasing in Vagada. One was sent to a pleasant spot on Abu hill for consecration, while one was installed at Jalor where the Rai built a temple and one was sent to Saivadi. At all these five places, worship of Lord Siva is performed (KP 28-29).

These multiple ritual centers consecrate the kingdom, making the God Siva present throughout Kanhadade's realm. In Padmanabha's imaginative geography, Jalor is the land where the concrete embodiments of Siva anchor the ritual economy that it is Kanhadade's responsibility to run. The move not only legitimates the Rajput ruler but also establishes proper order throughout the king's territory and marks the land as his. Ritual and political sovereignty reinforce each other through this politics of embodied religious devotion.

The Turkish armies return to Delhi in disarray, where 'Alauddin, incensed at the actions of the Raval, sends the renonwned Hahar Malik and Bhoja to lay siege to the fort of Sivana or Samiyana in Kanhadade's kingdom. The fort is held by Satala, the Sutal Dev of Amir Kushrau's masnavi. Unfortunately for 'Alauddin's generals, however, Satala's forces defeat them utterly and kill Nahar Malik and Bhoja. When the sultan hears the terrible news, he decides to besiege Sivana himself. The poet again describes in great detail the grand army of 'Alauddin and the fearsome siege they undertook. The end of the protracted campaign comes one night when the Goddess Asapuri appears to Satala in a dream and shows him around the enemy camp. There the Rajput prince sees the Turkish emperor as a form of Rudra-Siva:

The Bhupa (ruler) at that time was fast asleep. Satala saw Siva's three eyes, and five faces, and large brown matted locks. The Lord wore a necklace of skulls and had in his hands an alms-bowl. Satala also saw the Lord's ample forehead. He saw the Ganges in the crown of the locks of Lord Siva, ashes smeared on his body, a tiger skin as a mattress, and also his trident. Satala was wonder-struck. He thought for a moment, happy to obtain a vision of Lord Siva, and bowed reverently ... "The Sultan has appeared in the form of Rudra! How can I strike a blow against him?" he thought, and decided to retrace his steps (KP 42)

Supernatural agency is made into the narrative cause for a historical event, enabling Padmanabha to explain why Satala lost the fort of Sivana to 'Alauddin. Indeed, events did progress badly for the Rajputs, and finally the women were forced to commit jauhar. [Suicide of Hindu Rajput women with their children and valuables in a massive fire, in order to avoid capture in times of war] Meanwhile the mean rode out on a suicidal raid from which they did not return, in the customary Rajput last stand. Here again, investing the women with the Rajputs' symbolic honor (mana) meant that they could not be captured alive but had to sacrifice themselves.

To return to the narrative, which has so far been an exclusively martial and religious poem staking the Rajputs' claim to their land, we now come to the story of love intertwined with these political and religious battles. A skirmist leads to further bloodshed, and the sultan is angry enough to which to march directly on the fort of Jalor. But his daughter Furuzan, variously called Piroja and Sitai, comes to him and pleads with him against another military expedition:

"By virtue of remembering past lives, I know the science of divination. Now I shall take the omens for your campaign.... The God Visnu took bodily form in nine different incarnations, one after the other, each time destroying the asuras. The tenth time, the Adi Purusa has been incarnated in the Chauhan clan. you know, honored Sir, when a moth jumps into a flame, it burns its wings and body. In the same way, if you march to Jalor, Kanhadade will certainly take your life" (KP 56).

Here, the narrative circle of God, territory, and rulership is closed with Kanhadade identified as the tenth incarnation of Visnu, the primal person or Adi Purusa for the current age. He literally becomes, in the religious causality behind events in the story, a god of flesh who cannot be attacked. Further, the poet uses a mythic referent to represent social and religious alterity: the reference to asuras or demons implies that the Muslims are the demons of the historical age of Kanhadade.

Furuzan expresses her desire to be married to the handsome Viramade, the crown prince of Jalor. Sultan 'Alauddin answers: "Good daughter, do not be mad and talk like that. You are mistaken in your affection for him. You know well that marriage between a Hindu and a Turk cannot take place. In Yogininagar (Delhi) there are Muslim princes and distinguished Khans. Whomsoever you like amongst them, I will call him and you may marry him" (KP 56). But the princess swears that she cannot marry anyone but Viramade: "There is a great difference between the Hindus and Turks: Hindus alone know how to enjoy the good things of life, like Indra... I have no desire to wed a Turk .... Either, my dear father, I will marry Viramade, or else I shall end my life! (KP 56-57). The sultan sends an envoy to Kanhadade with an offer of marriage and a grand dowry: the wealthy province of Gujarat and fifty-six crores of gold and silver. Land, woman, and money come wrapped up in the same package -- the matrimonial proposal, in which these are the articles of exchange.

Viramade, however, laughs to himself and spurns the Sultan's offer indignantly:

The Emperor has now thought of a new strategy to bring Jalor under his sway. He has such a large army! But is this the way to conquer countries, without any fighting? I cannot agree to this offer of marriage and thereby incur dishonor! I will never unite with a Turkish woman in wedlock. Even if the pinnacles of Mount Meru were to crash down. Chauhan Viramade will not sit at the sacred fire to marry the Sultan's daughter, nor clasp her hand in the hathleva ceremony, or dine in the marriage pavilion!... By such an act, all the thirty-six Rajput clans will be shamed and the luster of all twenty-one Rajput kings will be dimmed.... Our great ancestor, Chachigadeva Chauhan, will be disgraced.... Such a thing has never happened in the past, nor shall it ever happen in the future! (KP 57-58).

In rejecting the Sultan's offer, the prince invokes his mythicized ancestor, the honor of the thirty-six Rajput clans, and the twenty-one dynasties of the kingdoms of Rajputana. The contours of power in Viramade's understanding are significantly different from the model of the Islamic state that Amir Khusrau described. Here, the bonds of kinship, marriage, and relations between lords and vassals link together a loosely knit confederacy of feuding rulers, who sometimes come together against a common enemy. Further, the prince constructs a great religious divide that can never be bridged by marriage or alliance; it seems war is the only course open to Jalor.

But the princess will not have it so. When the envoy returns with news of Viramade's refusal, 'Alauddin at first orders another raid into Jalor. In the course of the raid, 'Alauddin for the first time sees the golden city of Jalor. By Kanhadade's orders, the city has been adorned especially to show the sultan the grandeur and might of the Chauhan kingdom:

Broad woven silk sheets of the color of the clouds were hung up, two on each bastion, and so also were chandovas (canopies) studded with jewels, with pendants of pearls dangling from them. The golden triple spires on the towers shone brightly. The earthen lamps on the battlements looked like so many stars, shimmering tremulously, their light mingling with that of the stars. A variety of minstrelsy (gitagana), sung in melodious tunes, could be heard. On the bastions, dances and plays were enacted. No one knew with what to compare these spectacles! Indeed, the fort looked like Indra's vimana (flying chariot), or like Lanka perched on the Trikuta mountain, so it seemed to the Ghori Sultan ('Alauddin). Delicate gold images studded with jewels were dangling here and there .... The royal palaces and temples were whitewashed and had here and there beautiful wall paintings... Kanhadade's fort had many bastions on which rows of lighted earthen lamps shed golden light around, which chamaras (yak-tail fly whisks) were being waved over the Chauhan ruler's head, the protector of the clam (KP 59-60).

The Sultan marvels at this heavenly city, which is lavishly described in the fashion of the nagara-varnana (description of a city) of Sakskritic kavyas. The poet uses the convention effectively to show the Rajput resistance to 'Alauddin, constructing a gold utopia of song, dance, architecture, painting, and, at the center of it all, the figure of the ideal king.

The Rajputs then attack a Turkish emcampment and carry of Shams Khan and his began (queen). To prevent a military raid, the princess again approaches her father:

My beloved father! I pray you listen to my request. Viramade was my husband in my previous birth. They have captured my sister and her husband and taken them to Jalor. By telling them all the signs and proofs of our past births, I will surely obtain their release."

The Emperor asked: "How could Virama be your husband?"

..."Long ago, he was Bapal's son, known as Singharaja, while I was born as Surjande, the daughter of Jai Chand. We entered into wedlock, full of ardent love for each other, in Yogininagar (Delhi). On his death, I entered fire in Antaraveda (Doab), a beautiful country, and thus upheld the true traditions of sati dharma.... The second time, Viramade was born as Kelhana in the house of the Kasi ruler while I was Ajaipala's daughter... I again entered fire following my consort's death.... (Details of three more births, formulaically recounted). Again, the sixth time.... he was born as Prthiviraja while I appeared as Padmavati. In that life I committed a grave sin. I had a cow killed and conjured magical incantations on the fetus to charm my lord and make him subservient to my wishes. This deranged his mind, and we indulged in amorous dalliance night and day, throwing all propriety to the winds. I had the Pradhans murdered and usurped power. Later, sultan shihab al-din killed the Rai on the banks of the Ghaggar, so I heard.... I ascended the pyre in Ayodhya, which brings immeasurable punya, and it was for this reason that I was born in a royal family. But because I had committed the two great sins, I was born in the house of a Turk" (KP 64).

The seventh time is the princess's present birth, in which she feels she has to join her husband again. This extraordinary account of reincarnation provides the beginnings of the narrative resolution of the story, as well as a fascinating reshaping of historical causality. The love that Prince Viramade and the princess have felt for one another during their last six births must be continued in this one, but her sins -- killing a pregnant cow and usurping power -- have led her to be born as a Turk. Here the princess is being assimilated into the structure of death and reincarnation, which explains her current political situation through karma.

Although the princess goes on an embassy in Kanhadade's realm and is received with great respect, courtesy, and royal hospitality, Prince Viramade refuses even to look at her. He spurns her again, and she accepts her fate for the sake of the sins she has committed. She does, however, secure the release of all the prisoners and returns to her father, having done the job of an envoy. After this, preparations begin for the final assault on Jalor, which is taken by treachery in 1311. The illustrious Kanhadade falls to the forces of the sultan, and all the women of the fort commit jauhar. The princess had, however, sent her nurse Dada Sanavar with the army, with instructions to save Viramade if she could. If she could not, she was to bring back his head to the princess. The nurse searches through the rubble of the fallen city and comes upon the body of Viramade. She puts his head tenderly into a basket of flowers and bears it to Delhi. When the head is presented to the princess on a platter, she addresses it:

Earlier, the Chauhan had vowed that he would never look at my face. Now, at least today, he will have to break his word!"

Those who are brave and of good lineage do not give up their plighted word even after death. The moment the princess came in front of Viramade's face, it turned away! (KP 101-2)

The princess weeps sadly over the loss of her brave and resolute love, then goes to enter a funeral pyre on the banks of the Yamuna, holding the head of Viramade in her lap. The story comes to an end with the genealogy of the rulers who follow in the line of Viramade.

Padmanabha and Amir Khusrau thus set within opposing narrative frames the historical transition of the period, the carving out of political territories from which a new Islamic polity with his capital at Delhi could collect revenue. Unlike the earlier Jain tale with its moral philosophy, these later romances are framed in terms of Islamicate and classical Indian notions of the ideal polity. In Amir Khusrau's poems about Sultan 'Alauddin Khalji, the achievement of the sultan is precisely that he has managed to make India into an Islamic land (dar al-Islam). Padmanabha's Kanhadade Prabandha sets the Rajput ruler within a ritual economy of kingship in which political rule and legityimacy is intrinsically bound up with saving the images of Siva that are being smashed by the iconoclastic Turks. In this tragic romance, where political and military enmity is never bridged, the Turkish princess becomes the active go-between who negotiates between the two sides, mediating between two systems that, although rooted in differing religious ideologies, share a symbolic investment in land and women....

-- Love's subtle magic: an Indian Islamic literary tradition, 1379-1545, by Aditya Behl, 1966-2009

Alauddin agreed to Madhava's plan and started planning an invasion of Gujarat. He sent envoys to all the kingdoms lying on the route connecting Delhi and Gujarat, requesting a safe passage for his army. Kanhadade of Jalore was the only king who refused to oblige to this request. He declared that allowing the Delhi army to pass through his kingdom would be against dharma because it would result in devastation of villages, enslavement of women, looting, and torture of cows and Brahmanas.[7]

Nevertheless, Alauddin's general Ulugh Khan marched to Gujarat with a huge army. The only Rajput who offered him any resistance in Gujarat was the Modasa chief Batada, who was defeated. Karnade, the king of Gujarat, fled his capital, following which the Muslim invaders destroyed the city's temples and converted them into mosques. Ulugh Khan then sacked Somnath, where all the priests died trying to prevent him from desecrating the city's Shiva temple. Ulugh Khan returned to Delhi with the Somnath lingam, which was to be smashed in Delhi in order to prove the superiority of Islam.[8]

Kanhadade's victory over Ulugh Khan

Next, the poet describes how Kanhadade recovered the Somnath lingam: The goddess Parvati appeared in Kanhadade's dream, urging him to rescue the lingam, as Ulugh Khan's army passed through his kingdom. Kanhadade sent his spies to Gujarat, and learned that Ulugh Khan's army was one of the grandest armies ever, and had taken hundreds of thousands of Hindus as slaves. Kanhadade gathered all the chiefs from the neighbouring principalities, and attacked the invaders (who are described as asuras or demons). With the blessings of the goddess Ashapuri, Kanhadade and his brother Maladeo defeated the Muslims, recovered the Somnath lingam, and captured Ulugh Khan's nobles Sadullah Khan and Sih Malik.[8]

Kanhadade venerated the rescued lingam, and installed its five pieces at Soratha, Lohasing in Vagada, Abu hill, Saivadi, and a newly built temple at Jalore. This act made the god Shiva present throughout Kanhadade's kingdom.[9]

Invasion of Sivana

Padmanabha next describes the Siege of Siwana (Sivana): When Ulugh Khan's defeated army reached Delhi, Alauddin sent an army led by his generals Nahar Malik and Bhoja to invade Kanhadade's kingdom. The army besieged the fort of Sivana, which was held by Satala.[9] Satala defeated the invaders, killing Nahar Malik and Bhoja.[10]

Alauddin then personally led an army that besieged Sivana. One day, the goddess Ashapuri appeared in Kanhadade's dream, and showed him the invaders' camp. There, Satala saw Alauddin in form of the god Rudra-Shiva, and therefore, decided not to strike a blow against him. Facing a certain defeat, the women of Sivana committed suicide by self-immolation (jauhar), while the men fought to their death.[10]

Furuzan's love for Viramade

The narrative of the poem now moves from war to love: After a skirmish between the armies of Delhi and Jalore, Alauddin decided to march to Jalore. His daughter Furuzan (also called Piroja or Sitai) told him that Kanhadade was the tenth incarnation of the god Vishnu, and would kill him if he tried to invade Jalore.[10]

Furuzan then expressed her desire to be married to Kanhadade's son Viramade. Alauddin tried to dissuade her, offering to marry her to any Muslim prince (Khan) of Yogininagar (Delhi). But Piroza declared that she would either marry Viramade or die. Alauddin yielded to her demand, and sent his envoy to Jalore with a marriage proposal and a huge dowry that included the wealthy Gujarat province and 560 million of gold and silver coins. However, Viramade mocked Alauddin for trying to subjugate Jalore through a marital alliance rather than military might. He refused Alauddin's offer, declaring that his marriage to a Turkic woman would shame all the 36 Rajput clans and disgrace his ancestor Chachigadeva.[11]

Upon receiving Viramade's reply, Alauddin launched an invasion of Jalore. Kanhadade ordered the city of Jalore to be decorated so that Alauddin could see the grandeur and the might of his kingdom. The bastions of Jalore were decorated with silk sheets, the canopies were studded with jewels and pearls, the towers were adorned with golden spires, and the city was lighted with earthen lamps. The royal palaces and temples were whitewashed and decorated with beautiful wall paintings. Music, dance and theatre events were organized in the city. When Alauddin reached Jalore, he marveled at the heavenly city.[12]

Alaudin's first attack on Jalore was unsuccessful: Kanhadade's army captured the invading general Shams Khan and his wife, who was a sister of Furuzan. Princess Furuzan then told Alauddin that Viramade was her husband in her previous births, and insisted that she could secure the release of the captives by telling Viramade about their relationship in their previous births.[12] Furuzan then described their five previous births, in which she had committed sati after her husband's death. She stated that in the sixth previous birth, Viramade had been born as Prithviraja, while she had been born as Padmavati. In this particular birth, she had committed two sins. First, she had killed a cow and conjured magical incantations to usurp power from her husband, which made him deranged. Second, she had usurped the power after ordering killings of all the ministers. After Prithviraja's death at the hands of Shihab al-din, Padmavati had committed sati in Ayodhya. Because of this act of punya (good deed), she had been born in Alauddin's royal family. However, because of her two sins, she had been born in a Turkic family.[13]

Furuzan then visited Kanhadade's kingdom, where she was received with great respect, courtesy and hospitality. However, Viramade even refused to look at her, and she accepted this as her fate because of the sins she had committed in her sixth previous birth. She managed to secure the release of Shams Khan and her sister.[13]

Defeat of Kanhadade

Padmanabha then describes Alauddin's final invasion of Jalore: Alauddin conquered Jalore using treachery in 1311. Kanhade died in the battle, and women of the fort commit suicide by jauhar. Princess Furuzan had sent her nurse Dada Sanavar to save Viramade, if possible, or alternatively, to bring his head as a relic. Dada Sanavar found Viramade's body, put his head in a basket of flowers, and brought it to Delhi.[13]

When Viramade's head was presented before Furuzan in a plate, she remarked that earlier, Viramade had vowed not to even look at her face, but today, he would have to break his vow. However, the moment she came in front of Viramade's face, the head turned away. A sad Furuzan wept, and finally committed sati on the banks of the Yamuna River, holding Viramade's head in her hand.[14]

The poem concludes with a genealogy of Viramade's descendants.[14]

Historical value

The poem contains authentic descriptions of the contemporary groups (such as Rajputs, Brahmins and Muslims), beliefs, festivals, social life, weapons and war strategies. This makes it a work of great historical value.[???] However, its narrative about Piroja's love for Viramade is purely imaginary.[15]

FN 15: Chimanlal Trivedi (1997). K. Ayyappa Paniker (ed.). Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5. P. 108.

Kanhadade Prabandh by Padmanabha, chronologically belonging to an earlier time, deserves a detailed mention here. It is a heroic poem delineating vira rasa [heroism, bravery, majesty, and glory in Indian classical music and aesthetics] on a historical subject [???]. The poem describes the battle between Allaudin Khalji and Raja Kanhadade of Jhalore. The poem possesses immense historical value for its authentic descriptions of the special social mores of ethnic groups like Rajputs, Muslims and Brahmins as well as the beliefs of those times and of popular festivals and vignettes of social life, realistic descriptions of weapons of war and war strategies employed. The dominant rasa [the essence or flavor of a work of art, literature, or performance, a key concept in Indian aesthetics, describing the emotional resonance and spiritual depth of a creative expression] is vira [the “heroic” sentiment] but the author introduces an element of karuna [compassion or mercy] by weaving into the historical narration a strand of an imaginary one-sided love of Piroja, the daughter of the emperor, for Viramade, the son of Kanhadade. The author's patriotism and his pride in his religion are expressed in the poem.

-- Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections, by Chimanlal Trivedi (1997)

References

1. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 189.
2. V. S. Bhatnagar 1991, p. viii.
3. V. S. Bhatnagar 1991, p. xxii.
4. India), Institute of Historical Studies (Kolkata (1979). Historical Biography in Indian Literature. Institute of Historical Studies. This Apabhramsa literature also, at first small and perhaps largely oral, continued to increase in volume till it formally assumed a new form commonly termed as old Marwari or Dingal. It does not differ much from the Gujarati of the present day as they both derived from a common source, the Apabhramsa. Due to their dose affinity, the romantic and heroic Kanhada-de-Prabandha has been claimed equally by Gujaratis and Rajasthanis. By the end of the fifteenth century the old Marwari or Dingal assumed its independent status as a language.
5. V. S. Bhatnagar 1991, p. 1.
6. Aditya Behl 2012, pp. 189–190.
7. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 190.
8. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 191.
9. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 192.
10. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 193.
11. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 194.
12. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 195.
13. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 196.
14. Aditya Behl 2012, p. 197.
15. Chimanlal Trivedi 1997, p. 108.

Bibliography

• Aditya Behl (2012). Love's Subtle Magic: An Indian Islamic Literary Tradition, 1379–1545. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514670-7.
• Chimanlal Trivedi (1997). K. Ayyappa Paniker (ed.). Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 978-81-260-0365-5.
• V. S. Bhatnagar (1991). "Foreword". Kānhaḍade Prabandha, India's Greatest Patriotic Saga of Medieval Times: Padmanābha's Epic Account of Kānhaḍade. Aditya Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-85179-54-4.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Kanhadade Prabandha.
• Kanhadade Prabandha in Sanskrit

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Vigraharaja IV [Visala-deva] [Chohan Prince Visala-Deru??] [Biswal Deva, Chohan, Rai of Sambhal??]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/22/24

Vigraharaja IV
Sapadalakshiya-Nripati [1]

A coin of Vigraharaja IV. Obverse: Rama standing left, holding bow; "sri ra ma" in Devanagari. Reverse: "Srimad vigra/ha raja de/va" in Devanagari; star and moon symbols below.
King of Sapadalaksha
Reign: c. 1150–1164 CE
Predecessor: Jagaddeva
Successor: Amaragangeya
Names: Visaldev Chauhan
Regnal name: Vigraharāja IV
Dynasty: Chahamanas of Shakambhari
Father: Arnoraja
Religion Hinduism


inscriptions of Vigraharaja IV

Vigraharāja IV (r. c. 1150–1164 CE), also known as Vigraharāja the Great and also Visala-deva (or Visaldev), was a king from the Chahamana (Chauhan) dynasty in north-western India, and is generally considered as one of the greatest rulers of the dynasty. He turned the Chahamana kingdom into an empire by subduing the neighbouring kingdoms of Chaulukya, Naddula, and Tomara kingdoms. He also repulsed Muslim invasions, from the Ghaznavid ruler Bahram Shah and defeated Khusrau Shah.

Vigraharaja's kingdom included major parts of present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi; and possibly some parts of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh too. Vigraharaja commissioned several buildings in his capital Ajayameru (modern Ajmer), most of which were destroyed or converted into Muslim structures after the Muslim conquest of Ajmer. These included a Sanskrit centre of learning that was later converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque. Harakeli Nataka, a Sanskrit-language drama written by him, is inscribed on inscriptions discovered at the mosque site.

Early life

Vigraharaja was born to the Chahamana king Arnoraja. Vigraharaja's elder brother and predecessor Jagaddeva killed their father. Their half-brother, Someshvara, was brought up in Gujarat by his Chaulukya maternal relatives. Vigraharaja probably ascended the throne after killing Jaggaddeva to avenge their father's death.[2]

Military career

The 1164 CE Delhi-Shivalik pillar inscription states that Vigraharaja conquered the region between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas. The Himalayas and the Vindhyas form the traditional boundary of Aryavarta (the land of ancient Aryans), and Vigraharaja claimed to have restored the rule of Aryans in this land. While his claim of having conquered the entire land between these two mountains is an exaggeration, it is not completely baseless. His Delhi-Shivalik pillar inscription was found at Topra village in Haryana, near the Shivalik Hills. This indicates that Vigraharaja captured territories to the north of Delhi, up to the Himalayan foothills.[3] Raviprabha's Dharmaghosha-Suri-Stuti states that the ruler of Malwa and Arisiha (possibly Arisimha of Mewar) assisted him in hoisting a flag at the Rajavihara Jain temple in Ajmer. The ruler of Malwa here probably refers to a claimant to the Paramara kingdom, which had been captured by the Chaulukyas during this period. Assuming that the claimant to the Malwa throne had accepted Vigraharaja's suzerainty, it appears that Vigraharaja's influence extended up to the Vindhyas, at least in name.[4]

His kingdom included the present-day Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi. It probably also included a part of Punjab (to the south-east of Sutlej river) and a portion of the northern Gangetic plain (to the west of Yamuna).[5]

The play Lalita-Vigraharaja-Nataka, composed by Vigraharaja's court poet, claims that his army included 1 million men; 100,000 horses; and 1,000 elephants.[5]

Harakeli Nataka [Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 12/22/24
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harakeli_Nataka

Nataka is a Sanskrit drama written by the Chahamana (Chauhan) king Vigraharaja IV alias Visaladeva, who ruled from 1150 to 1164 CE.[1][2] This drama is based on Kiratarjuniya of writer Bharavi [only available in Sanscrit]. The play is also called Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka.


A Hindu-style column of the ruined Sanskrit college and Sarasvati temple at Ajmer, converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque by Qutb al-Din Aibak

The only extant parts of Harakeli Nataka were found inscribed in the ruined Sanskrit college and Sarasvati temple at Ajmer, which was converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque by Qutb al-Din Aibak, the first sultan of Delhi.[3] It tells of his love with princess Desaldevi, and his war preparations against a Turushka (Turkic) king named Hammir.

Plot

The plot of Harkeli Nataka involves Vigraharaja's preparations against a Turushka ruler named Hammira (Emir). In the story, his minister Shridhara tells him not to risk a battle with a powerful adversary. Nevertheless, Vigraharaja is determined to fight the Turushka king. He sends a message to his lover Desaladevi, informing her that the upcoming battle would soon give him an opportunity to meet her. The play describes Desaladevi as the daughter of prince Vasantapala of Indrapura.[4] The play is available only in fragments, so the details of the ensuing battle are not known.

Historicity

Historian Dasharatha Sharma identified Hammira with Khusrau Shah of Ghazna, and assumed that Vigraharaja repulsed his invasion.[5]

Historian R. B. Singh, on the other hand, theorizes that no actual battle took place between Vigraharaja and Hammira. According to Singh's theory, the "Hammira" on the play might have been Bahram Shah, who fled to India after the Ghurids defeated him at the Battle of Ghazni (1151). Bahram Shah invaded the Tomara territory of Delhi after coming to India. Vasantapala might have been a Tomara ruler, possibly Anangapala. Indrapura may refer to Indraprastha, that is, Delhi. Vigraharaja probably decided to send an army in support of the Tomara king. But before an actual battle could take place, Bahram Shah returned to Ghazna as the Ghurids had departed from that city.[6]

References

1. Krishna Reddy (1 December 2006). Indian Hist (Opt). Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
2. Indian History. Allied Publishers.
3. Text ed. by F. Keilhorn in Indian Antiquary, Vol. XX, 1891, pp. 203, 210–212.
4. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 143.
5. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 60.
6. R. B. Singh 1964, pp. 143–144.

Bibliography

• R. B. Singh (1964). History of the Chāhamānas. N. Kishore. OCLC 11038728.
• Dasharatha Sharma (1959). Early Chauhān Dynasties. S. Chand / Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9780842606189.

Chaulukyas of Gujarat


Visaladeva inscription on Delhi-Topra pillar, 12th century

I now proceed to lay before the Society the results of my application of the alphabet, developed by the simple records of Bhilsa, to the celebrated inscription on Feroz's column, of which facsimiles have been in the Society's possession since its very foundation, without any successful attempt having been made to decipher them. This is the less to be wondered at when we find that 500 years before, on the re-erection of the pillar, perhaps for the second or third time, by the emperor Feroz [r. 1351–1388)], the unknown characters were just as much a mystery to the learned as they have proved at a later period — "Round it" says the author of the Haftaklim, "have been engraved literal characters which the most intelligent of all religions have been unable to explain. Report says, this pillar is a monument of renown to the rajas or Hindu princes, and that Feroz Shah set it up within his hunting place: but on this head there are various traditions which it would be tedious to relate."

Neither Muhammed Ami'n the author of the Haftaklim [Muhammad Amin Razi, [x], vide Amin Ahmad, author of the Haft Aklim -- The Oriental Biographical Dictionary], nor Ferishteh, in his account of Feroz's works alludes to the comparatively modern inscription on the same pillar recording the victories of Visala Deva king of Sacambhari (or Sambhar) in the 12th century, of which Sir William Jones first ... [XXI. Inscriptions on the Staff of Firuz Shah, translated from the Sanscrit, as explained by Radha Canta Sarman, Asiatic Researches, Volume 1, 1788, P. 315-317.],

OM. In the year 1230, on the first day of the bright half of the month Vaisach (a monument) of the Fortunate Visala Deva Son of the Fortunate Amilla Deva, King of Sacambhari.

II. The next, which is engraved as a specimen of the character, consists of two stanzas in four lines; but each hemistich is imperfect at the end, the two first wanting seven, and the two last five, syllables. The word Sacambhari in the former inscription enables us to supply the close of the third hemistich.

OM. As far as Vindhya, as far as Hsinadri, (the Mountain of Snow,) he was not deficient in celebrity ... making Aryaverta (the Land of Virtue, or India) even once more what its name signifies ... He having departed, Prativahaamana Tilaca (is) king of Sacambhari: (Sacam only remains on the monument.) By us (the region between) Himawat and Vindhya has been made tributary.

In the year from Sri Vicramaditta 123 [A.D. 67], in the bright half of the month Vaisach ... at that time the Rajaputra Sri Sallaca was Prime Minister....

The date 123 is here perfectly clear; at least it is clear that only three figures are written, without even room for a cypher after them; whence we may guess that the double circle in the former inscription was only an ornament, or the neutral terminal am; if so, the date of both is the year of Christ sixty-seven; but if the double circle be a Zero, the monument of Visala Deva is as modern as the year 1174, or nineteen years before the conquest of Delhi by Shihabuddin.

-- XXI. Inscriptions on the Staff of Firuz Shah, translated from the Sanscrit, as explained by Radha Canta Sarman. Excerpt from Asiatic Researches, Volume 1, P. 315-317, 1788

... and Mr. Colebrooke afterwards, ['Translation of one of the Inscriptions on the Pillar at Delhi, called the Lat of Firuz Shah, by Henry Colebrooke, Esq., With Introductory Remarks by Mr. Harrington,' Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII, 1803, P. 175-182] published translations in the first and seventh volumes of the [Asiatic] Researches.

[-- Translation of one of the Inscriptions on the Pillar at Delhi, called the Lat of Firuz Shah, by Henry Colebrooke, Esq., With Introductory Remarks by Mr. Harrington,' Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII, 1803, P. 175-182]

This was in quite a modern type of Nagari; differing about as much from the character employed on the Allahabad pillar to record the victories of Chanara and Samudra-gupta, as that type is now perceived to vary from the more ancient form originally engraven on both of these pillars ...

-- VI.—Interpretation of the most ancient of the inscriptions on the pillar called the lat of Feroz Shah, near Delhi, and of the Allahabad, Radhia [Lauriya-Araraj (Radiah)] and Mattiah [Lauriya-Nandangarh (Mathia)] pillar, or lat, inscriptions which agree therewith, by James Prinsep, Sec. As. Soc. &c., 1837

When William Finch saw the pillar in 1611 A.D., it had “on the top a globe surmounted by a crescent.” Its gilt pinnacle, which Shams-i-Siraj also mentions, gave the pillar the name of Minar Zarin or the Golden Pillar. The top of the pillar has since been injured by lightning, or cannon balls. Besides several minor records of pilgrims and travellers, ranging from the first century of the Christian Era to the present century, the two most important inscriptions on the pillar are, first that of king Asoka, containing his edicts which were promulgated in the middle of the third century before Christ, and are engraved in the ancient Pali or the spoken language of the day; the second, records in Sanskrit, the victories of the Chohan Prince Visala Deva, who ruled over the country lying between the Himalayas and the Vindhya hills; this inscription was engraved in Samwat 1220 (1163 A.D.) in modern Nagri character....

The second inscription belongs to the year 1161 A.D., and records the victories of King Visala Deva of Sakambhari, and is said to have been engraved by the order of Rai Pithora, who professed to be a descendant of the Chohan conqueror of the Tuars. This inscription consists of two portions, the shorter one is above and the longer one below the edicts of Asoka. The upper portion is engraved in much larger characters than the lower, and is on the south-west side of the pillar; and in the translation of the inscription given below in the foot note it is the first paragraph. The second portion of the inscription, which consists of two stanzas, is very defective. The two first hemistichs are wanting in seven, and the two last in five syllables. Cunningham suggests that the rendering of chahumanatilaka into “Chief of the Chohans” is more forcible than that of Colebrooke’s into “most eminent of the tribe which sprang from the arms” [of Brahma]. He further believes, that there is an error in referring the origin of the Chohans to Brahma, preferring the version of Mukji, the Bard of the Khichi Chohans, who derives them from the Anal Kund, or the fire-spring on Mount Abu. Agreeing with Mr. Edward Thomas, General Cunningham suggests that the name of the Prime Minister should be read Sri Sallakshana, and not Sri Mad Lakshana.

[Fn: English translation of the inscription

“In the year 1220 or [A.D. 1163] on the 15th day of the bright half of the month of Vaisakh (this moon:) of the fortunate Visala Deva, son of the fortunate Vella Deva, king of Sakambhari.

As far as the Vindhiya, as far as the Himadri, having achieved conquest in the course of travelling to holy places; resentful to haughty kings, and indulgent to those whose necks are humbled; making Aryavarta once more what its name signifies, by causing the barbarians to be exterminated; Visala-Deva, supreme ruler of Sakambhari and Sovereign of the earth, is victorious in the world. This conqueror, the fortunate Vigraha Raja, King of Sakambhari, most eminent of the tribe which sprang from the arms (of Brahma) now addresses his own descendants: By us the region of the earth between Himavat and Vindhya has been made tributary; let not your minds be void of exertion to subdue the remainder. Tears are evident in the eyes of the enemy’s consort; blades of grass are perceived between thy adversaries’ teeth; thy fame is predominent throughout space; the minds of thy foes are void (of hope); their route is the desert where men are hindered from passing; O Vigraha Raja Deva! in the jubilee occasioned by thy march. May thy abode, O Vigraha, sovereign of the earth be fixed, as in reason it ought, in the bosoms (akin to the mansion of dalliance) of the women with beautiful eyebrows who were married to thy enemies! There is no doubt of thy being the highest of embodied souls. Didst thou not sleep in the lap of Sri whom thou didst seize from the ocean, having churned it? In the year of the fortunate Vikramaditya 1220, on Thursday the 15th day of the bright half of the month Vaisakh. This was written in the presence of and by Sri-pati, the son of Mahava Akhyastha of a family in Ganda at this time the fortunate Lakshana Pala. a Rajaputra, is prime minister. Siva the Terrible, and the universal Monarch".]  

-- Archaeology and Monumental Remains of Delhi, by Carr Stephen, 1876

Firuz Shah’s lat pyramid ... functions as an emblem appropriated from an infidel religion, in the manner of the iron pillar, and also has symbolic associations like the Qutb Minar. The lat was probably intended by Firuz Shah to have a symbolic function. By incorporating it into a Muslim religious structure, Firuz Shah appropriated and adapted an emblem of the pagan world for Islamic purposes and, in a symbolic sense, converted the dar al-harb (the pagan world) to the dar al-islam....In this manner, the Firuzabad lat, a pre-Islamic emblem which had lost meaning in fourteenth century Indian society, gained new meaning....

The Ta’rikh-i Firuz Shahi of ‘Afif and the Sirat-i Firuz Shahi both mention popular beliefs about the column ... The Sirat-i Firuz Shahi mentions that the pillar was traditionally thought to have been located next to a temple erected some four thousand years in the past.

The absence of any mention of a temple reinforces the hypothesis that Asokan columns frequently stood alone. Other popular beliefs about the column given in the Sirat include a story about a certain Biswal Deva, Chohan, Rai of Sambhal, an idol worshipper. The coincidental mention of a Chohan prince named Visala Deva in one of the inscriptions suggests that the men of the day were able to read at least part of one epigraph...[!!!!!!]

Inscriptions and the Futuhat-i Firuz Shahi

No Muslim inscriptions are known to survive in the physical remains of the mosque but, as already noted, the Archaeological Society of Delhi noticed two roundels of stucco decoration which contained inscriptions of the Muslim creed. On the other hand, the lat is inscribed with several epigraphs which date as early as the third century B.C. and as late as the sixteenth century A.D. Unfortunately none of the lat inscriptions belongs to Firuz Shah. One of two nagari epigraphs dated Samvat 1581/1524 A.D. names Suritan Ibrahim, identified as Sultan Ibrahim Lodi.52 [The earliest inscription in Pali is believed to be Asokan in origin (third century B.C.). Two sanskrit inscriptions in nagari script are dated Samvat 1220/1163 A.D. One describe[s] the victories of a certain Chohan Prince Visala Deru of Sakambhari. The second names Sri Bhadra Mitras (or Subhadra Mitra). There are two Gupta period inscriptions and several short inscriptions of a later date, the most legible name Surya Vishnu Subharnaka Kana, Hara Singht Subarna Kakana, Charma Subanak (Charma Sabana Shara), and Siddh Bhayan Kamath Joji. One of two inscriptions bearing the date Samvat 1581/1524 A.D. contains the name Suritan Ibrahim. See Cunningham, Reports, Archaeological Survey of India I, p. 167; Carr Stephen, Archaeology and Monumental Remains, pp. 134-138 footnotes; J.A. Page, A Memoir on Kotla Firoz Shah, Delhi, pp. 26-29.] Much attention has been directed to these lat inscriptions by modern historians but they have little if any relevance to Firuz Shah. ‘Afif mentions in the Ta’rikh-i Firuz Shahi that neither Brahmans or Hindu devotees of Topra were able to decipher them but he writes, "It is said that certain infidel Hindus interpreted them as stating that no one should be able to remove the obelisk from its place till there should arise in the latter days a Muhammadan king, named Sultan Firoz."53 [‘Afif, Ta’rikh (Elliot and Dowson), p. 352.] ‘Afif clearly points out that Firuz Shah and members of his entourage were suspicious of this interpretation. The author of the Sirat-i Firuz Shahi concurs that the inscriptions were "unintelligible."

Firuz Shah allowed the inscriptions to remain intact but, more curiously, he did not add any Muslim inscriptions to the column. Following the example of Qutb al-Din Aibek, who ordered the erection of the iron column in the Quwwat al-Islam mosque, Firuz Shah left the surface of the Firuzabad column unaltered, but since the inscriptions were undeciphered, they probably posed no threat or embarrassment to him. The omission of inscriptions related to Firuz Shah on the lat itself by no means excludes the possibility that epigraphs existed elsewhere on the foundation....

The lat of Fathabad bears a Tughra Arabic inscription which is said to trace the genealogy of the Tughluq line. [A translation of it was allegedly done by Maulvi Ziyauddin Khan but it has not surfaced.]

-- The Architecture of Firuz Shah Tughluq, Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University, by William Jeffrey McKibben, B.A., M.A., 1988

Reading Ashoka's Brahmi on Delhi Pillar

Based on the provided search results, it’s unlikely to find anyone alive today who can read the Ashoka Brahmi script on the Firuz Shah Pillar (Delhi-Topra Pillar) with proficiency. Here’s why:

1. Decipherment: The Ashoka Brahmi script was deciphered by Sir James Prinsep in 1837. While there may be scholars and epigraphists familiar with the script, it’s unlikely to find someone who has mastered the skill of reading it fluently.
2. Limited expertise: Brahmi script is a specialized field, and experts in the field are few and far between. Even among epigraphists and Indologists, there may be only a handful of individuals with extensive knowledge of Brahmi script, and fewer still who have dedicated themselves to mastering its reading.
3. Lack of practical application: The Ashoka Brahmi script is primarily of historical and academic interest. There are no contemporary practical applications or uses for reading the script, which means there is little motivation for individuals to develop the necessary skills.
4. No living tradition: Unlike other ancient scripts, such as Devanagari or Tamil, there is no living tradition of reading or writing Ashoka Brahmi script. This means that there are no native speakers or practitioners who can pass on their knowledge to others.
While it’s possible to find individuals with some knowledge of Brahmi script or Ashoka inscriptions, it’s unlikely to find someone who can read the script fluently and accurately on the Firuz Shah Pillar (Delhi-Topra Pillar). The script is over 2,000 years old, and its decipherment and interpretation require extensive study and expertise.

-- Is there anyone alive today who can read the ashoka brahmi on the firuz shah pillar-delhi-topra pillar?, by Google AI

Vigraharaja's father Arnoraja had suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Kumarapala, the Chaulukya king of Gujarat. Vigraharaja launched several expeditions against the Chaulukyas to avenge his father's defeat.[2]

According to the Bijolia rock inscription, he killed one Sajjana. The inscription describes Sajjana as "the most wicked person of the land", who was sent to the abode of Yama (the god of death) by Vigraharaja. Historian Dasharatha Sharma identified Sajjana with Kumarapala's governor (daṇḍāhiśa) of Chittor. According to the Jain author Somatilaka Suri, Vigraharaja's army captured Sajjana's elephant force. While Vigraharaja was busy fighting at Chittor, Kumarapala tried to create a diversion by besieging Nagor, but lifted the siege after learning about Vigraharaja's victory at Chittor.[6]

A Chahamana prashasti (eulogy) boasts that Vigraharaja reduced Kumarapala to a karavalapala (probably the designation of a subordinate officer). This is obviously an exaggeration, but it does appear that Vigraharaja conquered some of Kumarapala's territories. The earliest Chahamana inscriptions from the Bijolia-Jahazpur-Mandalgarh area are dated to Vigraharaja's reign.[7]

Chahamanas of Naddula


The Bisaldeo temple in Bisalpur was constructed by Vigraharaja IV.

Vigraharaja subdued the Chahamanas of Naddula, who had branched off from the Shakambhari Chahamana dynasty, and were feudatories of the Chaulukya king Kumarapala.[8] The Bijolia inscription boasts that he turned Javalipura (modern Jalore) into "Jvalapura" (city of flames); reduced Pallika (modern Pali) to a palli (a hamlet); and made Naddula (modern Nadol) a nadvala (a cane-stick or a marsh of reeds).[9][10] The Naddula ruler subdued by him was probably Alhanadeva.[3]

Vigraharaja also defeated one Kuntapala, who can be identified with a Naddula Chahamana subordinate of Kumarapala.[11]

Tomaras of Delhi

The Bijolia rock inscription states that Vigraharaja conquered Ashika (identified with Hansi) and Delhi.[12] The Chahamanas had been involved in conflicts with the Tomaras of Delhi since the time of his ancestor Chandanaraja. Vigraharaja put an end to this long conflict by decisively defeating the Tomaras, who had grown weak under attacks from the Chahamanas, the Gahadavalas and the Muslims. The Tomaras continued to rule for a few more decades, but as vassals of the Chahamanas.[13]

An old bahi (manuscript) states that Visaladeva i.e. Vigraharaja captured Delhi from Tamvars (Tomaras) in the year 1152 CE (1209 VS).[14] According to historian R. B. Singh, Hansi might have been under Muslim control by this time.[12] On the other hand, Dasharatha Sharma theorizes that the Tomaras had recaptured Hansi from Ghaznavids by this time, and Vigraharaja captured it from the Tomaras.[13]

The legendary epic poem Prithviraj Raso states that the later Chahamana king Prithviraja III married the daughter of the Tomara king Anangapala, and was bequeathed Delhi by the Tomara king. Historian R. B. Singh speculates that it was actually Vigraharaja who married the daughter of the Tomara king. According to Singh, Desaladevi, who has been mentioned in the play Lalita-Vigraharaja-Nataka as Vigraharaja's lover, might have been the daughter of a Tomara king named Vasantapala.[12]

War against the Turushkas

Main article: Vigraharaja IV's first war against the Muslims

Several sources indicate that Vigraharaja achieved military successes against the Turushkas, the Muslim Turkic invaders in Vigraharaja IV's first war against the Muslims.[15] The Delhi-Shivalik pillar inscription boasts that he destroyed the mlechchhas (foreigners), and once again made Aryavarta ("the land of Aryans") what its name signifies. The Prabandha-Kosha describes him as "the conqueror of Muslims". The Muslim invaders forced to retreat by him were probably the Ghaznavid rulers Bahram Shah and Khusrau Shah.[16]

The plot of Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka involves Vigraharaja's preparations against a Turushka ruler named Hammira (Emir). In the story, his minister Shridhara tells him not to risk a battle with a powerful adversary. Nevertheless, Vigraharaja is determined to fight the Turushka king. He sends a message to his lover Desaladevi, informing her that the upcoming battle would soon give him an opportunity to meet her. The play describes Desaladevi as the daughter of prince Vasantapala of Indrapura.[17] The play is available only in fragments, so the details of the ensuing battle are not known. Historian Dasharatha Sharma identified Hammira with Khusrau Shah, and assumed that Vigraharaja repulsed his invasion.[13]

Historian R. B. Singh, on the other hand, theorizes that no actual battle took place between Vigraharaja and Hammira. According to Singh's theory, the "Hammira" on the play might have been Bahram Shah, who fled to India after the Ghurids defeated him at the Battle of Ghazni (1151). Bahram Shah invaded the Tomara territory of Delhi after coming to India. Vasantapala might have been a Tomara ruler, possibly Anangapala. Indrapura may refer to Indraprastha, that is, Delhi. Vigraharaja probably decided to send an army in support of the Tomara king. But before an actual battle could take place, Bahram Shah returned to Ghazna as the Ghurids had departed from that city.[18]

Other conquests

According to the Bijolia inscription, Vigraharaja also defeated the Bhadanakas.[14] The Prithviraja Vijaya claims that he conquered several hill forts.[13]

Cultural activities


Vigraharaja's Sanskrit learning centre was converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque (pictured) after the Muslim conquest of Ajmer.

Vigraharaja patronized a number of scholars, and was a poet himself. Jayanaka, in his Prithviraja-Vijaya, states that when Vigraharaja died, the name kavi-bandhava ("the friend of the poets") disappeared.[19]

The king commissioned a centre of learning in Ajmer, which was later destroyed by the Ghurid invaders and converted into the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque. Several literary works were engraved on stones at this centre:[20]

• The play Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka was composed by his court poet Somadeva in his honour. Only fragments of this play were recovered from the mosque.[21]

Somadeva
by Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somadeva

Somadeva was an 11th century CE writer from Kashmir. He was the author of a famous compendium of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales - the Kathasaritsagara.

Not much is known about him except that his father's name was Rama and he composed his work (probably during the years 1063-81 CE) for the entertainment of the queen Suryamati, a princess of Jalandhara and wife of King Ananta of Kashmir.

Ananta or King Ananta, also known as Anantadeva, was a king of Kashmir who reigned for 40 years from 1028 to 1068 CE. He belonged to the Lohara dynasty.

At a young age, Ananta succeeded his close relative — who possibly ruled the region for less than a month — on the throne of Kashmir. According to the Kashmiri historian Kalhana...

-- Ananta (king), by Wikipedia

Kalhana (sometimes spelled Kalhan or Kalhan'a) (c. 12th century), a Kashmiri, was the author of Rajatarangini (River of Kings), an account of the history of Kashmir. He wrote the work in Sanskrit between 1148 and 1149. All information regarding his life has to be deduced from his own writing, a major scholar of which is Mark Aurel Stein. Robin Donkin has argued that with the exception of Kalhana, "there are no [native Indian] literary works with a developed sense of chronology, or indeed much sense of place, before the thirteenth century".

Kalhana was born to a Kashmiri minister, Chanpaka, who probably served king Harsa of the Lohara dynasty. It is possible that his birthplace was Parihaspore and his birth would have been very early in the 12th century. It is extremely likely that he was of the Hindu Brahmin caste, suggested in particular by his knowledge of Sanskrit. The introductory verses to each of the eight Books in his Rajatarangini are prefaced with prayers to Shiva, a Hindu deity. In common with many Hindus in Kashmir at that time, he was also sympathetic to Buddhism, and Buddhists tended to reciprocate this feeling towards Hindus. Even in relatively modern times, Buddha's birthday has been a notable event for Kashmiri Brahmins and well before Kalhana's time Buddha had been accepted by Hindus as an avatar of Vishnu.

Kalhana was familiar with earlier epics such as the Vikramankadevacharita of Bilhana, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, to all of which he alludes in his own writings. However, his own writings did not employ what Stein has described as "the very redundant praise and flattery which by custom and literary tradition Indian authors feel obliged to bestow on their patrons". From this comes Stein's deduction that Kalhana was not a part of the circle surrounding Jayasimha, the ruling monarch at the time when he was writing the Rajatarangini.

-- Kalhana, by Wikipedia

Rajatarangini (Rājataraṃgiṇī, "The River of Kings") is a metrical legendary and historical chronicle of the north-western Indian subcontinent, particularly the kings of Kashmir. It was written in Sanskrit by Kashmiri historian Kalhana in the 12th century CE....

Although inaccurate in its chronology, the book still provides...

Kalhana's work is also full of legends and inconsistencies...

Historical reliability

Despite the value that historians have placed on Kalhana's work, there is little evidence of authenticity in the earlier books of Rajatarangini. For example, Ranaditya is given a reign of 300 years. Toramana is clearly the Huna king of that name, but his father Mihirakula is given a date 700 years earlier. Even where the kings mentioned in the first three books are historically attested, Kalhana's account suffers from chronological errors.

-- Rajatarangini, by Wikipedia

The queen was quite distraught as it was a time when the political situation in Kashmir was 'one of discontent, intrigue, bloodshed and despair'.

-- Somadeva, by Wikipedia

What do we know about Vigraharaja IV's court poet Somadeva?
by Google AI
12/22/24

Based on the provided search results, here’s what we know about Somadeva, the court poet of Vigraharaja IV:

1. Composition of Lalita-Vigraharaja-Nataka: Somadeva wrote a Sanskrit drama, Lalita-Vigraharaja-Nataka, in honor of Vigraharaja IV. Fragments of this play were recovered from the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque, which was originally a Sanskrit center of learning commissioned by Vigraharaja IV.
2. Harikeli Nataka: Somadeva also wrote another Sanskrit drama, Harikeli Nataka, which is inscribed on two slabs at the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra mosque site. This play is modeled after Kiratarjuniya, a work by the ancient poet Bharavi.
3. Court poet: Somadeva served as the court poet of Vigraharaja IV, composing dramas and other literary works for the king’s entertainment and patronage.
4. Patronage: Somadeva mentions in his work that Queen Suryamati of Kashmir was his patron, and he wrote the Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of the Streams of Stories) for her, to distract her from her studies of science.

Note that there is limited information available about Somadeva’s life, and most of what we know comes from his own works and the context in which they were composed.

• Fragments of the play Harikeli Nataka, authored by Vigraharaja himself, were also found inscribed on two slabs at the Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra. The play is styled after Kiratarjuniya, a work by the ancient poet Bharavi.[19]
• A Chauhan prashasti (eulogy), which is in form of a kavya (poem).[4]
• A stuti (prayer) to various Hindu deities, also in kavya form.[4]

According to Prithviraja-Viajaya, Vigraharaja commissioned as many buildings as the hill forts he captured. Most of these appear to have been destroyed or converted to Muslim structures (such as Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra) after the Muslim conquest. He established a number of towns named Visalapura ("the city of Visala") after his alternative name Visala.[22] He is also said to have commissioned a lake named Visalasara (also known as Vislya or Bisalia) in Ajmer. According to Prithviraj Raso, the king saw a beautiful spot with springs and hills while returning from a hunt. He ordered his chief minister to construct a lake at this spot.[23]

He also founded the Vigrahapura town (modern Bisalpur) on the site of an older town called Vanapura. There, he constructed the Gokarnesvara temple, now popularly known as Bisal Deoji's temple.[24]

Like his predecessors, Vigraharaja was a devout Shaivite, as indicated by his Harakeli-Nataka. He also patronzed Jain scholars, and participated in their religious ceremonies. At the request of the Jain religious teacher Dharmaghosha-Suri, he banned animal slaughter on the Ekadashi day.[22]

The Bijolia rock inscription describes Vigraharaja as "a protector of the needy and the distressed".[5] He is generally considered one of the greatest rulers of the Chauhan Dynasty.[25] Historian Dashratha Sharma calls him "Vigraharaja the Great" and describes his reign as the "Golden age of Sapdalaksha" (the Chauhan Territory).[25]

Vigraharaja's son Amaragangeya succeeded him on the throne.[23]

References

1. Hooja, Rima (2006). A History of Rajasthan. New Delhi: Rupa Publication. p. 43. ISBN 81-291-0890-9.
2. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 56.
3. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 148.
4. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 62.
5. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 150.
6. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 57.
7. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, pp. 58–59.
8. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 149.
9. Shyam Singh Ratnawat & Krishna Gopal Sharma 1999, p. 105.
10. Asoke Kumar Majumdar 1956, p. 109.
11. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, pp. 57–58.
12. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 147.
13. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 60.
14. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 59.
15. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 60-61.
16. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 145.
17. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 143.
18. R. B. Singh 1964, pp. 143–144.
19. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 151.
20. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 152.
21. R. B. Singh 1964, pp. 151–152.
22.Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 64.
23. R. B. Singh 1964, p. 153.
24. "Bisaldeo Temple". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 29 September 2016.
25. Dasharatha Sharma 1959, p. 65.

Bibliography

• Asoke Kumar Majumdar (1956). Chaulukyas of Gujarat. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. OCLC 4413150.
• Dasharatha Sharma (1959). Early Chauhān Dynasties. S. Chand / Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9780842606189.
• R. B. Singh (1964). History of the Chāhamānas. N. Kishore. OCLC 11038728.
• Shyam Singh Ratnawat; Krishna Gopal Sharma, eds. (1999). History and culture of Rajasthan: from earliest times upto 1956 A.D. University of Rajasthan. Centre for Rajasthan Studies. OCLC 42717862.

[admin]

Mleccha
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/19/25
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mleccha

In July 1756, news reached Madras that Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal, had stormed Calcutta and ejected the British. With Watson, his squadron, a regiment of royal troops, and a thousand sepoys Clive sailed for Bengal.

The next seven months, or ‘the Famous Two Hundred Days’, would witness the British conquest of the richest and possibly the largest of the Mughal provinces. Bengal duly became the ‘bridgehead’, ‘springboard’ and ‘foundation’ of British rule in India. It was not the new front against the French which Clive had expected, but the French presence at Chandernagore did provide a handy pretext for continuing his advance after Calcutta had been recaptured and all rights as per the farman restored. Chandernagore itself would be stormed by Watson’s ships in what was much the most ferocious engagement of the campaign. Thereafter it was the nawab’s supposed intrigues with the French which justified a further advance to Plassey. In the battle which followed, the nawab would be toppled by intrigue and, following Arcot practice, the first of several puppet nawabs installed.

Nine years later rule by proxy in Bengal would become rule by diwani. In a decidedly tacky ceremony the Emperor Shah Alam II, Muhammad Shah’s successor, formally inducted the Company, in the person of Clive, into the Mughal hierarchy. As diwan, or chancellor, for Bengal, the Company received a title which was now tantamount to sovereignty over a province that enjoyed virtual autonomy. Although the drama and scandals of ‘the Famous Two Hundred Days’ are often characterised as a ‘revolution’, no one could seriously contend that the Company had not observed the conventions of power-seeking under the later Mughal empire. Nor is it evident that most power-brokers in Bengal opposed their new superior. In fact many argued strongly in favour of British intervention. Foreign rule in India was seldom regarded as objectionable per se. [?!]

-- India A History: From the Earliest Civilisations to the Boom of the Twenty-First Century, by John Keay

Mleccha (Sanskrit: म्लेच्छ, romanized: mlecchá) is a Sanskrit term referring to those of an incomprehensible speech, foreigners or invaders deemed distinct and separate from the Vedic tribes.[1][2][3][4] In Vedic literature, the term is used to refer to 'non-Aryans' (Sanskrit: अनार्याः, romanized: anāryaḥ): foreigners who did not speak Indo-Aryan languages and those considered culturally or linguistically distinct from the Vedic or Aryan people and outside the religious and cultural sphere of Vedic dharma.[5][6][7][8]

The word Mleccha was commonly used for foreign non vedic people of whatever race or colour.[9][verification needed] As a mleccha is any foreigner who stood outside the varna system and the ritual ambience.The Baudhayana sutras define a mleccha as someone who eats beef or indulges in self-contradictory statements or is devoid of righteousness and purity of conduct. The Mleccha people were Śākas, Huns, Chinese, Greeks, Kambojas, Pahlavas, Bahlikas, Rishikas and Daradas.[10][11] The Barbaras, Kiratas, Paradas, Saka-Greeks, Indo-Greeks, Pulindas, Scythians,[12] Kushans,[13] Kinnaras,[14] Tusharas,[15] Nishadas,[16] Türks, Mongols, Romans, Balochs[17] and Arabs were also mlecchas.[18]

Etymology

The Sanskrit word mleccha does not have a standard Indo-European etymology and has no counterpart in Iranian languages.[19] It is composed of two roots Mala (filth/impurity) and Ichha (desire) referring to the one who loves filth, probably referring to the Non Vedic lifestyle of foreigners which Indo Aryans considered as impure and filthy. However, it has cognates in Middle Indo-Aryan languages: Pali milakkha, and Prakrit mliccha, from the latter of which originate Sindhi milis, Punjabi milech, Kashmiri brichun (weep or lament), Western Pahari melech (dirty), Odia mḷecha, Bengali myaloch (dirty).[20] The Sanskrit word occurs as a verb mlecchati for the first time in the latic Vedic text Śathapatha‐Brāhmaṇa dated to around 700 BCE. It is taken to mean to speak indistinctly or barbarously.[20] Brahmins are prohibited from speaking in this fashion.[21]

As mleccha does not have an Indo-European etymology, scholars infer that it must have been a self-designation of a non-Aryan people within India. Based on the geographic references to the Mleccha deśa (Mleccha country) to the west, the term is identified with the Indus people, whose land is known from the Sumerian texts as Meluḫḫa.[22] Asko Parpola has proposed a Dravidian derivation for "Meluḫḫa", as mel-akam ("high country", a possible etymological relationship and reference to Balochistan from where originated the Indus Valley Civilization.[23][24] Franklin Southworth suggests that mleccha comes from mizi meaning 'speak', or 'one's speech' derived from Proto-Dravidian for language.[25][26][a]

Pali, the older Prakrit used by Theravada Buddhism, uses the term milakkha. It also employs milakkhu, a borrowing from a Dramatic Prakrit.[27]

Language

Some explanations of the name mleccha suggest that the word was derived from the Indo-Aryan perception of the speech of the indigenous peoples. Namely, mlech was a word that meant 'to speak indistinctly'. As such, some suggest that the Indo-Aryans used an onomatopoeic sound to imitate the harshness of alien tongue and to indicate incomprehension, thus coming up with mleccha.[28]

Early Indo-Aryans spoke Sanskrit, which evolved into the various local modern Sanskrit-derived languages. Sanskrit was believed to include all the sounds necessary for communication. Early Indo-Aryans would therefore dismiss other languages as foreign tongue mleccha bhasha. As the Sanskrit word itself suggests, mlecchas were those whose speech was alien.[29] Correct speech was a crucial component of being able to take part in the appropriate yajñas (religious rituals and sacrifices). Thus, without correct speech, one could not hope to practice correct religion, either.[citation needed]

The notion of being Arya suggested a knowledge of Sanskrit in order to effectively perform ritual hymns; thus suggesting the importance of language. Parasher discusses the importance of knowing the correct speech in order to perform sacrifice and ritual in the religion of the brahmanas. Parasher continued, "The best experts of the sacrificial art were undoubtedly the various families of the Brahmins who, placed in a hierarchy within the Indo-Aryan social system, became the upholders of pure and best speech".[30]

Historians note that early Indo-Aryans believed Sanskrit to be the superior language over all other forms of speech. As such, mleccha or barbarian speech was said to have meant any of the following:

1. a language which was not necessarily alien, but the speech of the person or persons was improper because it was either hostile or vulgar
2. a language, and here most probably Sanskrit, that was mispronounced and, thereby, incomprehensible
3. finally, any foreign tongue which was naturally incomprehensible because it was unintelligible to those who did not understand a particular language.[31]

Territory

Historians have stated that the notion of foreigners in ancient India – those living outside of the Indian subcontinent – was often accompanied by the idea that one was a barbarian. Still, it seemed that groups who did not come from outside of these areas, as well as foreigners, were designated by the term mleccha, which carried with it a barbarian connotation.[32]

Thus another distinction that was made between the mlecchas and non-mlecchas was area of habitation. Though they were considered a marginal group, the area characterize as the mleccha-desa (the natural border that separated their lands from that of the Aryans) was never permanent. Instead, it was defined by the changing ideas about the Āryāvarta. Parasher noted that the only consistent areas dubbed as mleccha desa were those regions inhabited by primitive tribes who for long periods of time did not come under the sway of the Vedic, Buddhist or Jain influence.[33]

Though the area of the Aryas expanded with time, the notion that was held over all of the land was that of purity. As Vedic literature refers only to the places and territories that were familiar to the Indo-Aryans, these lands eventually became part of the Āryāvarta. Parasher thus indicates that the Āryāvarta was designated as the region where the River Sarasvati disappears is the Patiala district in Punjab. The Pariyatra Mountains belong to the Vindhya Range, probably the hills of Malwa. The Kalakavana is identified with a tract somewhere near Prayag. Still, other interpretations of the Āryāvarta refer to those areas where the black antelope roams, for these areas are fit for the performance of sacrifice. Early Vedic literature focused on defining the area of habitation of the Aryas for this land was considered pure; yet there is no actual reference to the mleccha country or behavior. Wherever the territory, though, the implications of naming such lands as the Āryāvarta is that any lands excluded from that area were considered impure.[34]

Further, there is evidence that Indians of the Vedic period actually had contact with people outside of the Indian subcontinent, namely the Persians. The Achaemenid Persian Empire, which ruled over the Indus River Valley during this time (522–486 BC) was not designated as mleccha, perhaps because they did not interfere with the Brahminical way of life.[35]

Later Vedic literature speaks of the western Anava tribes as mlecchas and occupying northern Punjab, Sindh and eastern Rajputana. The tribes of the north were mlecchas either because they were located on the frontiers such as Gandhara, Kasmira, Kambojas, Khasas [36][37] and therefore both their speech and culture had become contaminated and differed from that of Āryāvarta, or else, as in the case of southern India, they were once Aryas but having forsaken the Vedic rituals were regarded to mleccha status.[38][failed verification]

Cultural behavior

See also: Yona

The word mleccha emerged as a way for the ancient Indo-Aryans to classify those who did not subscribe to the traditional value system, though the characteristics of this system were ambiguous. In sum, though, the idea was that the mlecchas were peoples who did not conform to what was culturally acceptable.[39]

Relations with mlecchas

See also: Kala pani (taboo)

Early writings refer to these foreign peoples as half-civilized, unconverted people who rise or eat at improper times. They stated that monks and nuns should avoid certain areas of habitation because they were unsafe. Namely, that the ignorant populace might beat, harass or rob them under the impression that they were spies from hostile villages. Further, while some of these non-mlecchas, such as those of the Jain faith, had established contact with people of the forest tribes, they were automatically designated as mlecchas. This was the typical attitude of people from the plains who took pride in their norms of settled agricultural and urban lifestyles.[40]

Historians note that there were also systems in place to determine the validity – or purity – of certain customs, which would ultimately be judged by the priest. As such there were intricate rules in place to define purity from impurity, laws of behavior, as well as rituals and customs, in an effort to educate the members of the Brahmanical system. Namely, these advisors took great pains to ensure that peoples of the Brahmanical system did not subscribe to any mleccha customs or rituals.[41]

The Sanskritisation of names was a common feature among both indigenous and foreign mlecchas who slowly tried to move away from their status of mleccha. Very often, in the case of ruling families, it took one to two generations to make a transition. One of the most direct forms of the expression of the Brahmanical ritual purity was the form and type of food which a Brahmin could eat. He was forbidden to accept cooked food from any unclean person. Thus when the Punjab region became a mleccha area conquered by Muslims, the staple food was given a lower place in the food-ranking. By the twelfth century CE, wheat was described in one lexicon as food of the mlecchas, and rice became the pure cereal. Onions and garlic was also regarded as the food of the mlecchas and therefore prohibited to the priestly intellectual class of Brahmins. Mlecchas drank alcohol, ate cow flesh, which was strictly forbidden to a follower of Hindu orthopraxy, and followed spiritual practices which were foreign to the Indian subcontinent.[18][42]

Literature describing the Mleccha

In the Mahabharata, some Mleccha warriors are described as having heads completely shaved or half-shaved or covered with matted locks, as being impure in habits, and of crooked faces and noses[43] They are dwellers of hills and denizens of mountain-caves. Mlecchas were born of the cow (belonging to Vasishtha), of fierce eyes, accomplished in smiting looking like messengers of Death, and all conversant with the deceptive powers of the Asuras.[44]
Swami Parmeshwaranand states the mleccha tribe was born from the tail of the celestial cow Nandini, kept by Vashishta for sacrificial purposes when there was a fight between Vishvamitra and Vasistha. The Mahabharata gives the following information regarding them:

• Mleccha who sprang up from the tail of the celestial cow Nandini sent the army of Vishvamitra flying in terror.
• Bhagadatta was the king of mlecchas.
• Pandavas, like Bhima, Nakula and Sahadeva once defeated them.
• Karna during his world campaign conquered many mleccha countries.
• The wealth that remained in the yaga-shala of Yudhishthira after the distribution as gifts to Brahmins was taken away by the mlecchas.
• The mlecchas drove angered elephants on the army of the Pandavas.
• This shows mlecchas were against Pandavas.[45][46]

The term is not attested in the Vedas, but occurs for the first time in the late Vedic text the Shatapatha Brahmana.[47] The Baudhayana sutras define a mleccha as someone who eats beef or indulges in self-contradictory statements or is devoid of righteousness and purity of conduct.[48]

Medieval Hindu literature, such as that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, also uses the term to refer to those of larger groups of other religions, especially Muslims.[49] In medieval India, a foreign visitor Al Birūnī (died 1048) noted that foreigners were regarded as unclean or Mleccha and Hindus were forbidden any social or matrimonial contact with them.[50]

According to the Gwalior inscription of his descendant Mihira Bhoja, the Gurjara Pratihara King Nagabhata I repulsed a mleccha invasion. These mlecchas are identified with the Arab Muslim invaders.[51][citation not found]

See also

• Barbarian
• Meluhha
• Dasa, Dahae, Dahiya (surname)
• Mlechchha dynasty
• Massagetae, Mleccha

Notes

1. See Southworth's etymological derivation of Tamil.

References

1. Monier-Williams, Monier. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, 1899, p. 841.
2. Macdonell, Arthur Anthony. A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary. Longmans, Green, & Co., 1897.
3. Parasher, Aloka (1979). "The Designation Mleccha for Foreigners in Early India". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 40: 109–120. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44141948. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022. Mlecchas as a reference group in early India included certain outsiders who did not conform to the values and ideas and consequently to the norms of the society accepted by vedic people.
4. "mlechchha | ancient Indian class {". http://www.britannica.com. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
5. Witzel, Michael. “The Development of the Vedic Canon and Its Schools: The Social and Political Milieu.” In: Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts: New Approaches to the Study of the Vedas. Harvard Oriental Series, 1997.
6. Parpola, Asko. The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press, 2015.
7. Dandekar, R. N. Vedic Bibliography, Volume 1. Ramakrishna Publishing House, 1947.
8. "mleccha". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
9. Basham, A. L. (1954) The wonder that was India, pages 145–146, Sidgwick and Jackson, London.
10. National geographer, 1977, p 60, Allahabad Geographical Society – History.
11. Mahabharata 6.51, 6.118, 7.20, 7.90, 7.116, 7.118, 8.73 etc
12. Truschke, Audrey (2021). The Language Of History: Sanskrit Narratives Of A Muslim Past. Penguin Random House India Private Limited. ISBN 978-93-5305-000-9. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
13. Language multiplicity and ancient races in India
14. "Kinnara Kingdom: 1 definition". 31 January 2015. Archived from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
15. MBH 12.65.13-15
16. Sharma, R. S. (1993). Indian Society: Historical Probings. People's Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-7007-176-1. Archived from the original on 26 April 2024. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
17. Bhandarkar 1929, p. 30.
18. Thapar, Romila (1 January 1978). Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. Orient Blackswan. ISBN 9788125008088.
19. Parpola & Parpola (1975), pp. 208–209.
20. Witzel (1999), p. 25.
21. Parpola & Parpola (1975), p. 213.
22. Witzel (1999), p. 25; Parpola & Parpola (1975)
23. Parpola & Parpola (1975).
24. Witzel (1999).
25. Southworth, Franklin C. (1998), "On the Origin of the word tamiz", International Journal of Dravidial Linguistics, 27 (1): 129–132
26. Southworth, Franklin (2004), Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, p. 74, ISBN 978-1-134-31777-6, archived from the original on 17 April 2022, retrieved 12 February 2021
27. "Archived copy". Pali-English Dictionary. Pali Text Society. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
28. Thapar (1971), pp. 409–410.
29. Thapar (1971), pp. 408–409.
30. Parasher (1991), pp. 48–49.
31. Parasher (1991), pp. 80–81.
32. Parasher-Sen, Aloka (2004). Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 276–277.
33. Parasher (1991), p. 90.
34. Parasher (1991), pp. 94–96.
35. Parasher-Sen, Aloka (2004). Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 279.
36. Grierson 1916, p. 17.
37. Saksena 2019, pp. 108–109.
38. Thapar, Romila (1978). Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. Orient Blackswan. p. 279. ISBN 978-81-250-0808-8.
39. Parasher (1991), pp. 76–77.
40. Parasher (1991), pp. 101–102.
41. Parasher (1991), p. 114.
42. Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations By Romila Thapar
43. "Mlecchas in early India: a study in attitudes towards outsiders up to AD 600
44. Mahabharata, Drona Parva, Section 92 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
45. Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Puranas: (A-C); 2.(D-H); 3.(I-L); 4.(M-R); 5 ... By Swami Parmeshwaranand
46. Parmeshwaranand, Swami (1 January 2001). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Puranas. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 9788176252263.
47. Pillai, Madhavan Arjunan (1988). Ancient Indian History. Ashish Publishing House. p. 36. ISBN 978-81-7024-188-1.
48. Goshen-Gottstein, Alon (8 August 2018). Interreligious Reflections, Six Volume Set: Six Volume Set Constituting Friendship Across Religions (Vol 1), Memory and Hope (Vol 2), Sharing Wisdom (Vol 3), The Crisis of the Holy (Vol 4), The Future of Religious Leadership (Vol 5), and The Religious Other (Vol 6). Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-5326-7152-4. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
49. Vedabase Archived 16 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
50. Rizvi, S.A.A. (1987), The wonder that was India, volume II, pages 252–253, Sidgwick and Jackson, London
51. Baij Nath Puri 1957, p. 37.

Bibliography

• Baij Nath Puri (1957). The History of the Gurjara-Pratiharas. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. OCLC 2491084.
• Bhandarkar, D. R. (1929). "Indian Studies No. I: Slow Progress of Islam Power in Ancient India". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 10 (1/2): 25–44. JSTOR 41682407.
• Parasher, Aloka (1991). Mlecchas in Early India: A Study in Attitudes toward Outsiders up to AD 600. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharial Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-215-0529-1.
• Parpola, Asko; Parpola, Simo (1975), "On the relationship of the Sumerian toponym Meluhha and Sanskrit mleccha", Studia Orientalia, 46: 205–238
• Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Inscriptions. Concept Publishing Company – via RYD56P78DL9.
• Southworth, Franklin (2004), Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-134-31777-6
• Thapar, Romila (October 1971). "The Image of the Barbarian in Early India". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 13 (4): 409–410. doi:10.1017/s0010417500006393. S2CID 143480731.
• Witzel, Michael (1999), "Substrate Languages in Old Indo-Aryan (Ṛgvedic, Middle and Late Vedic)", Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, archived (PDF) from the original on 6 February 2012

***********************

When Alberuni entered India, times were not favourable for opening friendly relations with native scholars. India recoiled from the touch of the impure barbarians. The Pala dynasty, once ruling over Kabulistan and the Panjab, had disappeared from the theatre of history, and their former dominions were in the firm grasp of King Mahmud and under the administration of his slaves, of Turkish descent. The princes of North-Western India had been too narrow-minded, too blind in their self-conceit, duly to appreciate the danger threatening from Ghazna, and too little politic in due time to unite for a common defence and repulse of the enemy. Single-handed Anandapala had had to fight it out, and had succumbed; but the others were to follow, each one in his turn. All those who would not bear the yoke of the mlecchas fled and took up their abode in the neighbouring Hindu empires.

-- Edward C. Sachau, from AlBiruni's India: An Account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about AD 1030, Edited with Notes and Indices by Edward C. Sachau, Volumes I & II, 1030 / 1910

CHAPTER 1: ON THE HINDUS IN GENERAL, AS AN INTRODUCTION TO OUR ACCOUNT OF THEM.

BEFORE entering on our exposition, we must form an adequate idea of that which renders it so particularly difficult to penetrate to the essential nature of any Indian subject. The knowledge of these difficulties will either facilitate the progress of our work, or serve as an apology for any shortcomings of ours. For the reader must always bear in mind that the Hindus entirely differ from us in every respect, many a subject appearing intricate and obscure which would be perfectly clear if there were more connection between us. The barriers which separate Muslims and Hindus rest on different causes.

First, they differ from us in everything which other nations have in common. And here we first mention the language, although the difference of language also exists between other nations. If you want to conquer this difficulty (i.e. to learn Sanskrit), you will not find it easy, because the language is of an enormous range, both in words and inflections, something like the Arabic, calling one and the same thing by various names, both original and derived, and using one and the same word for a variety of subjects, which, in order to be properly understood, must be distinguished from each other by various qualifying epithets. For nobody could distinguish between the various meanings of a word unless he understands the context in which it occurs, and its relation both to the following and the preceding parts of the sentence. The Hindus, like other people, boast of this enormous range of their language, whilst in reality it is a defect.

Further, the language is divided into a neglected vernacular one, only in use among the common people, and a classical one, only in use among the upper and educated classes, which is much cultivated, and subject to the rules of grammatical inflection and etymology, and to all the niceties of grammar and rhetoric.

Besides, some of the sounds (consonants) of which the language is composed are neither identical with the sounds of Arabic and Persian, nor resemble them in any way. Our tongue and uvula could scarcely manage to correctly pronounce them, nor our ears in hearing to distinguish them from similar sounds, nor could we transliterate them with our characters. It is very difficult, therefore, to express an Indian word in our writing, for in order to fix the pronunciation we must change our orthographical points and signs, and must pronounce the case-endings either according to the common Arabic rules or according to special rules adapted for the purpose.

Add to this that the Indian scribes are careless and do not take pains to produce correct and well-collated copies. In consequence, the highest results of the author’s mental development are lost by their negligence, and his book becomes already in the first or second copy so full of faults, that the text appears as something entirely new, which neither a scholar nor one familiar with the subject, whether Hindu or Muslim, could any longer understand. It will sufficiently illustrate the matter if we tell the reader that we have sometimes written down a word from the mouth of Hindus, taking the greatest pains to fix its pronunciation, and that afterwards when we repeated it to them, they had great difficulty in recognising it.

As in other foreign tongues, so also in Sanskrit, two or three consonants may follow each other without an intervening vowel—consonants which in our Persian grammatical system are considered as having a hidden vowel. Since most Sanskrit words and names begin with such consonants without vowels, we find it very difficult to pronounce them.

Besides, the scientific books of the Hindus are composed in various favourite metres, by which they intend, considering that the books soon become corrupted by additions and omissions, to preserve them exactly as they are, in order to facilitate their being learned by heart, because they consider as canonical only that which is known by heart, not that which exists in writing. Now it is well known that in all metrical compositions there is much misty and constrained phraseology merely intended to fill up the metre and serving as a kind of patchwork, and this necessitates a certain amount of verbosity. This is also one of the reasons why a word has sometimes one meaning and sometimes another.

From all this it will appear that the metrical form of literary composition is one of the causes which make the study of Sanskrit literature so particularly difficult.

Secondly, they totally differ from us in religion, as we believe in nothing in which they believe, and vice versa. On the whole, there is very little disputing about theological topics among themselves; at the utmost, they fight with words, but they will never stake their soul or body or their property on religious controversy. On the contrary, all their fanaticism is directed against those who do not belong to them—against all foreigners. They call them mleccha, i.e. impure, and forbid having any connection with them, be it by intermarriage or any other kind of relationship, or by sitting, eating, and drinking with them, because thereby, they think, they would be polluted. They consider as impure anything which touches the fire and the water of a foreigner; and no household can exist without these two elements. Besides, they never desire that a thing which once has been polluted should be purified and thus recovered, as, under ordinary circumstances, if anybody or anything has become unclean, he or it would strive to regain the state of purity. They are not allowed to receive anybody who does not belong to them, even if he wished it, or was inclined to their religion. This, too, renders any connection with them quite impossible, and constitutes the widest gulf between us and them.

In the third place, in all manners and usages they differ from us to such a degree as to frighten their children with us, with our dress, and our ways and customs, and as to declare us to be devil’s breed, and our doings as the very opposite of all that is good and proper. By the by, we must confess, in order to be just, that a similar depreciation of foreigners not only prevails among us and the Hindus, but is common to all nations towards each other. I recollect a Hindu who wreaked his vengeance on us for the following reason:—

Some Hindu king had perished at the hand of an enemy of his who had marched against him from our country. After his death there was born a child to him, which succeeded him, by the name of Sagara. On coming of age, the young man asked his mother about his father, and then she told him what had happened. Now he was inflamed with hatred, marched out of his country into the country of the enemy, and plentifully satiated his thirst of vengeance upon them. After having become tired of slaughtering, he compelled the survivors to dress in our dress, which was meant as an ignominious punishment for them. When I heard of it, I felt thankful that he was gracious enough not to compel us to Indianise ourselves and to adopt Hindu dress and manners.

Another circumstance which increased the already existing antagonism between Hindus and foreigners is that the so-called Shamaniyya (Buddhists), though they cordially hate the Brahmans, still are nearer akin to them than to others. In former times, Khurasan, Persis, ‘Irak, Mosul, the country up to the frontier of Syria, was Buddhistic, but then Zarathustra went forth from Adharbaijan and preached Magism in Balkh (Baktra). His doctrine came into favour with King Gushtasp, and his son Isfendiyad spread the new faith both in east and west, both by force and by treaties. He founded fire-temples through his whole empire, from the frontiers of China to those of the Greek empire. The succeeding kings made their religion (i.e., Zoroastrianism) the obligatory state-religion for Persis and ‘Irak. In consequence, the Buddhists were banished from those countries, and had to emigrate to the countries east of Balkh. There are some Magians up to the present time in India, where they are called Maga. From that time dates their aversion towards the countries of Khurasan. But then came Islam; the Persian empire perished, and the repugnance of the Hindus against foreigners increased more and more when the Muslims began to make their inroads into their country; for Muhammad Ibn Elkasim Ibn Elmunabbih entered Sindh from the side of Sijistan (Sakastene) and conquered the cities of Bahmanwa and Mulasthana, the former of which he called Al-mansura, the latter Al-ma’mura. He entered India proper, and penetrated even as far as Kanauj, marched through the country of Gandhara, and on his way back, through the confines of Kashmir, sometimes fighting sword in hand, sometimes gaining his ends by treaties, leaving to the people their ancient belief, except in the case of those who wanted to become Muslims. All these events planted a deeply rooted hatred in their hearts.

Now in the following times no Muslim conqueror passed beyond the frontier of Kabul and the river Sindh until the days of the Turks, when they seized the power in Ghazna under the Samani dynasty, and the supreme power fell to the lot of Nasir-addaula Sabuktagin. This prince chose the holy war as his calling, and therefore called himself Al-ghazi (i.e. warring on the road of Allah). In the interest of his successors he constructed, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Yamin-addaula Malmud marched into India during a period of thirty years and more. God be merciful to both father and son! Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims. This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares, and other places. And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources.

In the fifth place, there are other causes, the mentioning of which sounds like a satire—peculiarities of their national character, deeply rooted in them, but manifest to everybody. We can only say, folly is an illness for which there is no medicine, and the Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs. They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited, and stolid. They are by nature niggardly in communicating that which they know, and they take the greatest possible care to withhold it from men of another caste among their own people, still much more, of course, from any foreigner. According to their belief, there is no other country on earth but theirs, no other race of man but theirs, and no created beings besides them have any knowledge or science whatsoever. Their haughtiness is such that, if you tell them of any science or scholar in Khurasan and Persis, they will think you to be both an ignoramus and a liar. If they travelled and mixed with other nations, they would soon change their mind, for their ancestors were not as narrow-minded as the present generation is. One of their scholars, Varahamihira, in a passage where he calls on the people to honour the Brahmans, says: “The Greeks, though impure, must be honoured, since they were trained in sciences, and therein excelled others. What, then, are we to say of a Brahman, if he combines with his purity the height of science?” In former times, the Hindus used to acknowledge that the progress of science due to the Greeks is much more important than that which is due to themselves. But from this passage of Varahamihira alone you see what a self-lauding man he is, whilst he gives himself airs as doing justice to others. At first I stood to their astronomers in the relation of a pupil to his master, being a stranger among them and not acquainted with their peculiar national and traditional methods of science. On having made some progress, I began to show them the elements on which this science rests, to point out to them some rules of logical deduction and the scientific methods of all mathematics, and then they flocked together round me from all parts, wondering, and most eager to learn from me, asking me at the same time from what Hindu master I had learnt those things, whilst in reality I showed them what they were worth, and thought myself a great deal superior to them, disdaining to be put on a level with them. They almost thought me to be a sorcerer, and when speaking of me to their leading men in their native tongue, they spoke of me as the sea or as the water which is so acid that vinegar in comparison is sweet.

Now such is the state of things in India. I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time, and although I do not spare either trouble or money in collecting Sanskrit books from places where I supposed they were likely to be found, and in procuring for myself, even from very remote places, Hindu scholars who understand them and are able to teach me. What scholar, however, has the same favourable opportunities of studying this subject as I have? That would be only the case with one to whom the grace of God accords, what it did not accord to me, a perfectly free disposal of his own doings and goings; for it has never fallen to my lot in my own doings and goings to be perfectly independent, nor to be invested with sufficient power to dispose and to order as I thought best. However, I thank God for that which He has bestowed upon me, and which must be considered as sufficient for the purpose.

The heathen Greeks, before the rise of Christianity, held much the same opinions as the Hindus; their educated classes thought much the same as those of the Hindus; their common people held the same idolatrous views as those of the Hindus. Therefore I like to confront the theories of the one nation with those of the other simply on account of their close relationship, not in order to correct them. For that which is not the truth (i.e. the true belief or monotheism) does not admit of any correction, and all heathenism, whether Greek or Indian, is in its pith and marrow one and the same belief, because it is only a deviation from the truth: The Greeks, however, had philosophers who, living in their country, discovered and worked out for them the elements of science, not of popular superstition, for it is the object of the upper classes to be guided by the results of science, whilst the common crowd will always be inclined to plunge into wrong-headed wrangling, as long as they are not kept down by fear of punishment. Think of Socrates when he opposed the crowd of his nation as to their idolatry and did not want to call the stars gods! At once eleven of the twelve judges of the Athenians agreed on a sentence of death, and Socrates died faithful to the truth.

The Hindus had no men of this stamp both capable and willing to bring sciences to a classical perfection. Therefore you mostly find that even the so-called scientific theorems of the Hindus are in a state of utter confusion, devoid of any logical order, and in the last instance always mixed up with the silly notions of the crowd, e.g. immense numbers, enormous spaces of time, and all kinds of religious dogmas, which the vulgar belief does not admit of being called into question. Therefore it is a prevailing practice among the Hindus jurare in verba magistri; and I can only compare their mathematical and astronomical literature, as far as I know it, to a mixture of pearl shells and sour dates, or of pearls and dung, or of costly crystals and common pebbles. Both kinds of things are equal in their eyes, since they cannot raise themselves to the methods of a strictly scientific deduction.

-- AlBiruni's India: An Account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about AD 1030, Edited with Notes and Indices by Edward C. Sachau, Volumes I & II, 1030 / 1910

It is one of the Indian paradoxes that in a subcontinent peopled by speakers of several language families1 and—at least for the last two millennia—numerous dialects assuming the role of distinct languages, there has been little interest in other peoples' language. Often there was outright hostility. The reason for this attitude is not hard to find: the Indo-Aryans were invaders and conquerors, that came in small numbers into a subcontinent occupied by indigenous people that must have outnumbered them many times over. The newcomers that may at first have settled peacefully as they trickled through the mountain passes from Afghanistan into the Indian plains (first into Gandhara, then Punjab), soon asserted themselves as masters and forced their language and customs on the native people they found (not quite unlike the Roman soldiers and administrators that in spite of their limited numbers soon had all of Gaul speaking colloquial Latin). While there were social and linguistic exchanges in the earliest period (local women taken by the invaders, exotic names of some chiefs, loan words, and syntactic innovations under the influence of local languages are strong indications of this),2 in later times learning the language of these wretched people (mleccha) was strongly discouraged.3

There were also social and linguistic distinctions among the new masters themselves. The poets of their liturgical hymns (of their heroic and other poetry we have a hardly a trace from this period) cultivated a highly styled archaic language with only occasional lapses into the contemporary idiom. There are words that exhibit phonetic features of the speech of the common man (e.g., /!/ for /r/ as in kala/kara, slila/ srira)4 and vocabulary borrowed from foreign tongues, especially for plants and animals formerly unknown to the invaders. When the oldest Vedic hymns were collected and canonized around 1,000 B.C. in eastern Punjab, the compilers tried to give their collection an archaic shape,5 while the language around them—even the language of the theological compositions of the priests—developed regional differences.6 The fourth and third centuries B.C. at last show in the Buddhist and Jaina canons and the inscriptions of King Asoka a number of dialects that we now call "Middle Indic" or with an old Indian term prakrta "common," that reflect more closely the speech of the common people of their time. Such common forms of speech as he 'layo7 instead of correct he 'rayo were emphatically condemned by the Sanskrit grammarian Patanjali: "A brahmin should not speak like a barbarian, nor should he speak incorrectly; for wrong speech is barbaric."8 A brahmin text of this period explicitly forbade brahmins (the guardians of the aryan tradition) to learn a mleccha language,9 referring probably to non-Indo-Aryan languages, since the popular Indo-Aryan dialects were still understandable without much difficulty. It is worth noting that this restriction did not apply to ksattriyas and vaisyas who may have found the knowledge of such languages useful.

-- Education in Ancient India, by by Hartmut Scharfe

39. On seeing the gods and Visnu sitting cheerless, Brahma, the creator of the worlds spoke to Siva with palms joined in reverence.

Brahma said:

40. There is no sin in this, since you are the foremost among those who know the Yogic theory; you are the great lord, the great Brahman and the saviour of gods and sages always.

41. It is at your own bidding that they have been deluded. You induced them to be deluded. Although the Asuras have forsaken their duties and your worship, they cannot be killed by others.

42. Hence, O great lord, the saviour of the lives of the gods and the sages, the Mlecchas [Mlecchas are represented as violent, carnivorous, torturous, non-Aryan wild tribes who caused terror in the social life of the country] shall be killed by you for the protection of the good.

43. As it is the duty of a king, you will not be sinning by their destruction. Hence, the good people, brahmins, etc. shall be saved and the thorns uprooted.

44. Even an ordinary king would do so if he cares to maintain his sway. You have the suzerainty of all the worlds. Hence, tarry not to protect us.

-- The Siva-Purana, by Motilal Banarsidass, 1950 English Translation of Siva Purana by J.L.Shastri

Samudragupta's second son Chandragupta the Second built on his father's successes by extending the Gupta empire from coast to coast. In the process he 'unburdened the sacred earth of the Mlecchas [barbarians without caste] ... and by so doing annihilated these sinful Mlecchas completely.'

-- The Buddha and Dr. Fuhrer: An Archaeological Scandal, by Charles Allen

Buddha versus Allah:

The armies of Rudra Chakrin will destroy the “not-Dharma” and the doctrines of the “unreligious barbarian hordes”. Hereby, according to the original text of the Kalachakra Tantra, it is above all the Koran which is intended. Mohammed himself is referred to by name several times in the Time Tantra, as is his one god, Allah. We learn of the barbarians that they are called Mleccha, which means the “inhabitants of Mecca” (Petri, 1966, p. 107). These days Rudra Chakrin is already celebrated as the “killer of the Mlecchas” (Banerjee, 1959, p. 52). This fixation of the highest tantra on Islam is only all too readily understandable, when the followers of Mohammed had in the course of history not just wrought terrible havoc among the Buddhist monasteries and communities of India — the Islamic doctrine must also have appeared more attractive and feeling to many of the ordinary populace than the complexities of a Buddhism represented by an elitist community of monks. There were many “traitors” in central Asia who gladly and readily reached for the Koran. Such conversions among the populace must have eaten more deeply into the hearts of the Buddhist monks than the direct consequences of war. Then the Kalachakra Tantra, composed in the time where the hordes of Muslims raged in the Punjab and along the Silk Road, is marked by an irreconcilable hate for the “subhumans” from Mecca.

This dualist division of the world between Buddhism on the one side and Islam on the other is a dogma which the Tibetan lamas seek to transfer to the future of the whole of human history. “According to certain conjectures”, writes a western commentator upon the Shambhala myth, “two superpowers will then have control over the world and take to the field against one another. The Tibetans foresee a Third World War here” (Henss, 1985, p. 19).

In the historical part of our analysis we shall come to speak of this dangerous antinomy once more. In contrast to Mohammed, the other “false doctrines” likewise mentioned in the first chapter of the Kalachakra Tantra as needing to be combated by the Shambhala king appear pale and insignificant.

-- The Shadow of the Dalai Lama: Sexuality, Magic and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, by Victor and Victoria Trimondi

[admin]

Royal Road
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 1/26/25

-- Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian; Being a Translation of the Fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes Collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the First Part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle, M.A., Principal of the Government College, Patna, Member of the General Council of the University of Edinburgh, Fellow of the University of Calcutta, With Introduction, Notes and Map of Ancient India, 1877

--- The History of Herodotus, by Herodotus, Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay, 1890

The map of Achaemenid Empire and the section of the Royal Road noted by Herodotus. [Note: More eastern segments of the road, identifiable in present-day northern Iran, were not noted by Herodotus, whose view of Persia was that of an Ionian Greek in the West; stretches of the Royal Road across the central plateau of Iran, such as the Great Khorasan Road, are coincident with the major trade route known as the Silk Road.]

89. Having so done in Persia, he [Dareios the son of Hystaspes] established twenty provinces, which the Persians themselves call satrapies; and having established the provinces and set over them rulers, he appointed tribute to come to him from them according to races, joining also to the chief races those who dwelt on their borders, or passing beyond the immediate neighbours and assigning to various races those which lay more distant. He divided the provinces and the yearly payment of tribute as follows:...

Of the Indians the number is far greater than that of any other race of men of whom we know; and they brought in a tribute larger than all the rest, that is to say three hundred and sixty talents of gold-dust: this is the twentieth division....

After these had made their voyage round the coast, Dareios both subdued the Indians and made use of this sea....

We have subdued and kept as our servants Sacans, Indians, Ethiopians, Assyrians, and other nations many in number and great...

The Indians were armed in the same manner as those of them who served on foot, and they both rode horses 78 and drove chariots, in which were harnessed horses or wild asses.[/size][/u][/b] The Bactrians were equipped in the same way as those who served on foot.

-- References to "India..." in History of Herodotus, by Herodotus

Most contentious issues in the reign of Alexander have a distinctly cyclical aspect....

The issue which best exemplifies this dilemma is the famous Ganges question. Is it credible that Alexander had reasonably accurate information about the Ganges river system and planned to extend his conquests there? On a priori considerations it would seem highly probable. He spent a spring and a summer in the northern Punjab, penetrating as far east as the river Hyphasis (modern Beas). In the course of that campaign he carried out detailed topographical investigations as far as the Indus mouth (which refuted his rashly formed belief that the Indus and Nile were interconnected).3 [Arr. 6. I. 5; Strabo 15. I. 25 (696) = Nearchus, FGrR 133 F 20. On this strange episode see above, Ch. 3.] He was in close contact with the local native rulers and naturally questioned them about conditions on the march ahead. It is surely to be inferred that he received information about the river system of the Jumna and Ganges, no more than 250 km., as the crow flies, east of the Hyphasis. When three separate source traditions corroborate that probability it would seem perverse to question it, and it is fair to state that most modern authorities have accepted that Alexander had some knowledge of the Ganges....

There is, however, a strong sceptical minority. The most eloquent and authoritative attack upon the ancient tradition came from Sir William Tarn, who in 1923 argued that Alexander 'never knew of the Ganges or of Magadha, any more than he knew of the vast Middle Country between the Sutlej and the Ganges'...

What it says about India, in Diodorus’ version, is this: India lies along ([x]) the Caucasus, and is a large kingdom of several peoples, the greatest of them being the Tyndaridae (or Gandaridae), whom Alexander did not attack because of their elephants. A river, the greatest in that district ([x]), 30 stades broad, divides ([x]) this country ([x]) — I think this means the India already described, but it might mean the Tyndaridae — from the India that comes next, i.e. further westward ([x]). Bordering on this country ([x]) — i.e. either on the India already described or on the Tyndaridae — is the rest of India which Alexander conquered ([x] above), through the middle of which runs the Indus. That is to say, Alexander's conquests are divided from the rest of India by an unnamed river: independent India beyond this river is a single kingdom, associated with a name. Note especially that the gazetteer, like the sources used by Arrian in his narrative, does not mention the two names which play such a part in the vulgate tradition, the Ganges and the Prasii: and, looking at what the gazetteer does say about India, this shows conclusively that neither was known to its author, that is, to those about Alexander in 324/3. Alexander then can have known nothing of the Ganges or of Magadha.

-- Alexander and the Ganges, by William Woodthorpe Tarn

What these approaches have in common is an insistence that the only evidence which can be accepted without reservation is a single passage of Arrian (5. 25. 1), which describes Alexander's ambitions beyond the Hyphasis without reference to the Ganges and without apparent knowledge of the centralized Nanda kingdom in the lower Ganges valley....

Gangaridai (Greek: Γανγαρίδαι; Latin: Gangaridae) is a term used by the ancient Greco-Roman writers to describe a people or a geographical region of the ancient Indian subcontinent. Some of these writers state that Alexander the Great withdrew from the Indian subcontinent because of the strong war elephant force of the Gangaridai. The writers variously mention the Gangaridai as a distinct tribe, or a nation within a larger kingdom (presumably the Nanda Empire [???!!!]).

A number of modern scholars locate Gangaridai in the Ganges Delta of the Bengal region, although alternative theories also exist. Gange or Ganges, the capital of the Gangaridai (according to Ptolemy), has been identified with several sites in the region, including Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar.

-- Gangaridai [Gandaridai] [Gandaridae] [Gandaritae] [Gandridae] [Gangaridae] [Gargaridae], by Wikipedia

The vulgate tradition, common to Diodorus, Curtius, and the Metz Epitome,10 [Diod. 17.93. 2-4; Curt. 9. 2. 2-9; Metz Epit. 68-9; cf. Plut. Al. 62. 2-3; Justin 12. 8. 9-10 (heavily abbreviated and garbled).] reports that Alexander did receive information about the Ganges and the eastern kingdom, and is necessarily dismissed as romantic embroidery...

Of the various pieces of source material buttressing the case for Alexander's knowledge of the Ganges by far the most important and problematic) is a tradition represented in two passages of Diodorus.13 [Diod. 2.37. 2-3; 18. 6. 1-2.] In Book 2 he grafts on to his digest of Megasthenes' account of India a description of the Ganges which patently comes from another source.14 [The width of the Ganges is totally at odds with Megasthenes' well-attested statement that its median (or minimum) breadth was 100 stades (Arr. Ind. 4. 7; Strabo 15. I. 35 (702) = Megasthenes FGrH 715 F 9).] The river is described as 30 stades wide, flowing from north to south (as the Ganges does in its western reaches) and dividing off to the east the Gandaridae, who had the largest and most numerous elephants in India. No foreign king had ever conquered them because of the number and ferocity of these beasts.

-- Alexander and the Ganges: A Question of Probability. Excerpt from Alexander and the East: The Tragedy of Triumph, by A.B. Bosworth

The Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327 BC and lasted until 325 BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the northwestern Indian subcontinent. Within two years, Alexander expanded the Macedonian Empire, a kingdom closely linked to the broader Greek world, to include Gandhara and the Indus Valley (present-day Punjab and Sindh in modern Pakistan), surpassing the earlier frontiers established by the Persian conquest of the Indus Valley. [???}

Following Macedon's absorption of Gandhara (a former Persian satrapy), including the city of Taxila, Alexander and his troops advanced into Punjab, where they were confronted by Porus, the regional Indian king. In 326 BC, Alexander defeated Porus and the Pauravas during the Battle of the Hydaspes,[1][2] but that engagement was possibly the Macedonians' most costly battle.[3]

Alexander's continued eastward march was leading his army into a confrontation with the Nanda Empire, based in Magadha. According to Greek sources, the Nanda army was five times the size of the Macedonian army;[4] Alexander's troops—increasingly exhausted, homesick, and anxious by the prospects of having to further face large Indian armies throughout the Indo-Gangetic Plain—mutinied at the Hyphasis River, refusing to advance his push to the east. After a meeting with his army general Coenus, during which he was informed of his soldiers' laments, Alexander relented under the conviction that it was better to return. He subsequently turned southward, advancing through southern Punjab as well as Sindh, where he conquered more tribes along the lower areas of the Indus River, before finally turning westward to reach Macedon.[5]

In order to consolidate Magadha's power Ajatashatru’s son Udayin (461-445 B.C.) transferred the capital from Rajagriha to Pataliputra that became a major centre in ancient India. The power of the state of Avanti was undermined at a later date, in the time of King Shishunaga, who came from a new line, the Shaishunaga dynasty. This dynasty later gave way to the Nanda dynasty, under whom a large empire was established. Knowledge of the dynasties’ chronology is far from complete, and the dates accepted by scholars are only pointers. Scholars of this period base themselves for the main part on data to be found in later Ceylonese chronicles (the Dipavamsa of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and the Mahavamsa of the sixth century A.D.) and also in the Puranas compiled in the early medieval period. The following dates are regarded as the most acceptable: the Haryanka dynasty founded by Bimbisara (437-413 B.C.), the Shaishunaga dynasty (413-345 B.C.) and the Nanda dynasty (345- 317/314 B.C.).

The Ceylon chronicles are admitted to be utterly worthless as history ...

-- History of Classical Sanskrit Literature, by Kavyavinoda, Sahityaratnakara M. Krishnamachariar, M.A., M.I., Ph.D., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London (Of the Madras Judicial Service), Assisted by His Son M. Srinivasachariar, B.A., B.L., Advocate, Madras, 1937

The Achaemenid Empire and the Indian Campaign of Alexander of Macedon

A very different situation was to be found in North-Western India, where there was no large state capable of uniting surrounding tribes and peoples, as was the case in the Ganges valley. This area was peopled by tribes of various ethnic origin, of a wide variety of languages and cultures. The strongest states were Kamboja and Gandhara which numbered among the sixteen “great lands”.

At the end of the sixth century B.C. some regions of North-Western India formed part of the Achaemenid empire.

In rock inscriptions of the famous Achaemenid emperor, Darius (522-486 B.C.), Gandhara and the trans-Indus region are named among his satrapies. The latter evidently incorporated areas in the central and lower reaches of the Indus River, but may have included neighbouring territories as well. Herodotus has left us an interesting reference to an expedition undertaken by Scylax of Caryanda at the command of Darius with the aim of ascertaining “the spot where the Indus River enters the sea”.

By way of its western territories India was to come into contact with the states of the Near East and Central Asia, parts of which had also been incorporated into the Achaemenid empire. The official language of that empire’s records was Aramaic, which was used in that part of the world later on too.

While a good deal was known in the West about those areas of India which formed part of the Achaemenid empire, classical writers of that period knew practically nothing about Eastern India and the political events that were taking place in the valley of the Ganges. According to Herodotus that part of the country was mere desert. India’s ties with states of the West, and this also applies to the eastern provinces of the country, changed considerably after the campaign of Alexander of Macedon.

Alexander marched into Indian territory at the height of his fame, after securing major military victories. His enormous and well- equipped army seemed assured of further successes. Moreover North-Western India was divided between mutually hostile alliances of tribes; between the rulers of the small state alliances there was no unity. Some of the petty kings in the area (such as the ruler of Taxila) allied themselves with Alexander. In return for this Alexander promised them a certain degree of autonomy and allowed them to retain their former possessions. However from the very beginning of the Indian campaign Alexander was to encounter fierce resistance from many tribes. The chroniclers of the campaign, who endeavoured to extol Alexander’s feats and successes, could not fail to remark on the amazing persistence displayed by the Indians, their bravery and passionate desire to fight to the bitter end. Many Indian tribes refused outright to negotiate with the Greeks and Macedonians and threw themselves into the unequal struggle: indeed on a good number of occasions they were even to emerge victorious.

The strongest of the Indian rulers in North-Western India was King Porus, one of those who resolved to face up to Alexander in open battle. This battle, which lasted several days, took place on the banks of the Hydaspes (the River Jhelum). The scale of the battle can be deduced from the figures cited by Arrian in his Anabasis of Alexander (A History of Alexander’s Campaign). Arrian informs us that in the last decisive battle thirty thousand foot soldiers and four thousand cavalry took part, that three hundred chariots and two hundred elephants were used. Only by resorting to a cunning manoeuvre was Alexander able to break through Porus' ranks. His lightly armed cavalry sowed panic among the well-armed but slow-moving Indian forces. Alexander emerged victorious from this encounter but King Porus fought to the last, despite his serious wounds. The courage of the Indian king won over Alexander, and he not only spared Porus’ life but even allowed him to retain his possessions.

Alexander’s army then moved further eastwards as far as Hydroates (modern Ravi). Alexander started rallying his forces to cross the river Hyphasis (modern Beas). Yet first he decided to find out all he could about the country beyond the Hyphasis, about its ruler and its army. Local petty rulers told Alexander of the land’s wealth, and of the strong army led by an Indian chieftain named Agrammes. By that time discontent was making itself felt among Alexander’s own troops, many of whom were demanding the cessation of this exhausting campaign. Reluctantly Alexander at last agreed to abandon his dream and gave the order to withdraw. The retreat of the Greco-Macedonian troops coincided with a new wave of anti-Macedonian uprisings and disturbances. They met with particularly stiff resistance from the Mallas, who had a strong army and were well organised.

On leaving India Alexander left behind him the division into satrapies with his experienced commanders and a number of local Indian rulers in charge. Alexander had only succeeded in subjugating part of North-Western India and in Indian sources there is no mention of Alexander’s campaign, nor of the resistance to his army (this information was handed down to us by classical authors). Nevertheless influence of the campaign on the events of that period of Indian history cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Soviet historians compiled and published a four-volume History of India in 1959-1969 which was well received in the country concerned. This work, some of whose authors and editors have contributed to the present study as well, has been drawn on for this new History of India in two books. At the same time use has also been made of the latest research into Indian history carried out by scholars from both the Soviet Union and many other countries. It is hoped that this book will provide the reader with a deeper knowledge of India and the history and culture of its peoples, and thus promote friendly relations between India and the Soviet Union.

-- History Of India, Vol 1, by K. Antonova, G. Bongard-Levin, G. Kotovsky, 1979

The Royal Road was an ancient highway reorganized and rebuilt for trade by Darius the Great, the Achaemenid emperor, in the 5th century BC.[1] Darius I built the road to facilitate rapid communication on the western part of his large empire from Susa to Sardis.[2] Mounted couriers of the Angarium were supposed to travel 1,677 miles (2,699 km) from Susa to Sardis in nine days; the journey took ninety days on foot.[3]

Course

The course of the road has been reconstructed from the writings of Herodotus,[4] archeological research, and other historical records.

History

Because the road did not follow the shortest nor the easiest route between the most important cities of the empire, archeologists believe the westernmost sections of the road may have originally been built by the Assyrian kings, as the road plunges through the heart of their old empire. More eastern segments of the road, identifiable in present-day northern Iran, were not noted by Herodotus, whose view of Persia was that of an Ionian Greek in the West;[5] stretches of the Royal Road across the central plateau of Iran, such as the Great Khorasan Road, are coincident with the major trade route known as the Silk Road.

However, Darius I [c. 550 – 486 BCE] improved the existing road network into the Royal Road as it is recognized today. A later improvement by the Romans of a road bed with a hard-packed gravelled surface of 6.25 m width held within a stone curbing was found in a stretch near Gordium[6] [6. Near Gordium the track was identified as post-Phrygian [1200–675 BC], as it wound round Phrygian tumuli: Young, Rodney S. (1956). "The Campaign of 1955 at Gordion: Preliminary Report". American Journal of Archaeology. 60 (3): 249–266. doi:10.2307/500152. JSTOR 500152. S2CID 192962099 p. 266 "The Royal Road"; and 61 (1957:319 and illus.)] and connecting the parts together in a unified whole stretching some 1677 miles, primarily as a post road, with a hundred and eleven posting stations maintained with a supply of fresh horses, a quick mode of communication using relays of swift mounted messengers, the kingdom's pirradazis.

In 1961, under a grant from the American Philosophical Society, S. F. Starr traced the stretch of road from Gordium to Sardis, identifying river crossings by ancient bridge abutments.[7]

Legacy

The Greek historian Herodotus wrote, "There is nothing in the world that travels faster than these Persian couriers." Herodotus's praise for these messengers— "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds"— was inscribed on the James Farley Post Office in New York and is sometimes thought of as the United States Postal Service creed.

A metaphorical "Royal Road" in famous quotations

Euclid is said to have replied to King Ptolemy's request for an easier way of learning mathematics that "there is no Royal Road to geometry", according to Proclus.[8] The same sentence is also attributed to Menaechmus replying to Alexander the Great.[9]

Charles Sanders Peirce, in his s:How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878), says, "There is no royal road to logic, and really valuable ideas can only be had at the price of close attention."

Sigmund Freud famously described dreams as the "royal road to the unconscious" ("Via regia zur Kenntnis des Unbewußten").

Karl Marx wrote in the 1872 Preface to the French Edition of Das Kapital (Volume 1), "There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits."

The Royal Road to Romance (1925) is the first book by Richard Halliburton, covering his world travels as a young man from Andorra to Angkor.

See also

• Achaemenid Empire
• Angaria (Roman law)
• Angarum
• Baghdad Railway
• Chapar Khaneh
• El Camino Real (California)
• History of Iran
• Inca road system
• Persian Corridor
• Trans-Iranian Railway
• Via Regia (Germany)
• Great Trunk Road
• Khurasan Road

Notes

1. Graf, David F. (1994). "The Persian Royal Road System". Continuity & Change: Proceedings of the Last Achaemenid History Workshop 1990. Vol. 8. Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. pp. 167–189. ISBN 90-6258-408-X.
2. Fox, Robin Lane (1973). Alexander the Great. London: Penguin. p. 96. ISBN 0-86007-707-1.
3. Kia, Mehrdad (2016). The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 127. ISBN 978-1610693912.
4. Herodotus, Histories v.52-54, viii.98; Herodotus seems to have been in possession of an itinerary. Calder, W. M. (1925). "The Royal Road in Herodotus". The Classical Review. 39 (1/2): 7–11. doi:10.1017/S0009840X0003448X. S2CID 162371707 suggested that Herodotus was partly in error in his tracing the route through Anatolia by making it cross the Halys and showed that though his overall his distances in parasangs are approximately correct, his distances over the sections he describes bear no relation to geographical facts.
5. "Herodotus, a Greek from the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, appears to have reported only that part of the network which led directly to the parts of the Greek world that concerned him," notes Young, Rodney S. (1963). "Gordion on the Royal Road". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 107 (4): 348–364. JSTOR 985675.
6. Near Gordium the track was identified as post-Phrygian [1200–675 BC], as it wound round Phrygian tumuli: Young, Rodney S. (1956). "The Campaign of 1955 at Gordion: Preliminary Report". American Journal of Archaeology. 60 (3): 249–266. doi:10.2307/500152. JSTOR 500152. S2CID 192962099 p. 266 "The Royal Road"; and 61 (1957:319 and illus.).
7. Starr, S. F. (1963). "The Persian Royal Road in Turkey". Yearbook of the American Philosophical Society 1962. Philadelphia. pp. 629–632.
8. Proclus, p. 57
9. "Menaechmus - Biography".

References

• Lockard, Craig A. (2008). Societies, Networks, and Transitions, A Global History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
• "The Persian Royal Road". Livius: Articles on Ancient History. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
• "The Royal Road". The History of Iran on Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved May 5, 2006.
• "The Persian Royal Mail (archived)". Rivers From Eden. Archived from the original on February 16, 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2016.

External links

• Media related to Royal Road at Wikimedia Commons

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Excerpt from "The History of Herodotus" Re Darius' Royal Road
by Herodotus
Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay, 1890

49. However, Aristagoras the despot of Miletos arrived at Sparta while Cleomenes was reigning: and accordingly with him he came to speech, having, as the Lacedemonians say, a tablet of bronze, on which was engraved a map 31 of the whole Earth, with all the sea and all the rivers. And when he came to speech with Cleomenes he said to him as follows: "Marvel not, Cleomenes, at my earnestness in coming hither, for the case is this.—That the sons of the Ionians should be slaves instead of free is a reproach and a grief most of all indeed to ourselves, but of all others most to you, inasmuch as ye are the leaders of Hellas. Now therefore I entreat you by the gods of Hellas to rescue from slavery the Ionians, who are your own kinsmen: and ye may easily achieve this, for the Barbarians are not valiant in fight, whereas ye have attained to the highest point of valour in that which relates to war: and their fighting is of this fashion, namely with bows and arrows and a short spear, and they go into battle wearing trousers and with caps 32 on their heads. Thus they are easily conquered. Then again they who occupy that continent have good things in such quantity as not all the other nations of the world together possess; first gold, then silver and bronze and embroidered garments and beasts of burden and slaves; all which ye might have for yourselves, if ye so desired. And the nations moreover dwell in such order one after the other as I shall declare:—the Ionians here; and next to them the Lydians, who not only dwell in a fertile land, but are also exceedingly rich in gold and silver," 33—and as he said this he pointed to the map of the Earth, which he carried with him engraved upon the tablet,—"and here next to the Lydians," continued Aristagoras, "are the Eastern Phrygians, who have both the greatest number of sheep and cattle 34 of any people that I know, and also the most abundant crops. Next to the Phrygians are the Cappadokians, whom we call Syrians; and bordering upon them are the Kilikians, coming down to this 35 sea, in which lies the island of Cyprus here; and these pay five hundred talents to the king for their yearly tribute. Next to these Kilikians are the Armenians, whom thou mayest see here, and these also have great numbers of sheep and cattle. Next to the Armenians are the Matienians occupying this country here; and next to them is the land of Kissia here, in which land by the banks of this river Choaspes is situated that city of Susa where the great king has his residence, and where the money is laid up in treasuries. After ye have taken this city ye may then with good courage enter into a contest with Zeus in the matter of wealth. Nay, but can it be that ye feel yourselves bound to take upon you the risk of 36 battles against Messenians and Arcadians and Argives, who are equally matched against you, for the sake of land which is not much in extent nor very fertile, and for confines which are but small, though these peoples have neither gold nor silver at all, for the sake of which desire incites one to fight and to die,—can this be, I say, and will ye choose some other way now, when it is possible for you easily to have the rule over all Asia?" Aristagoras spoke thus, and Cleomenes answered him saying: "Guest-friend from Miletos, I defer my answer to thee until the day after to-morrow." 37

50. Thus far then they advanced at that time; and when the appointed day arrived for the answer, and they had come to the place agreed upon, Cleomenes asked Aristagoras how many days' journey it was from the sea of the Ionians to the residence of the king. Now Aristagoras, who in other respects acted cleverly and imposed upon him well, in this point made a mistake: for whereas he ought not to have told him the truth, at least if he desired to bring the Spartans out to Asia, he said in fact that it was a journey up from the sea of three months: and the other cutting short the rest of the account which Aristagoras had begun to give of the way, said: "Guest-friend from Miletos, get thee away from Sparta before the sun has set; for thou speakest a word which sounds not well in the ears of the Lacedemonians, desiring to take them a journey of three months from the sea."

51. Cleomenes accordingly having so said went away to his house: but Aristagoras took the suppliant's branch and went to the house of Cleomenes; and having entered in as a suppliant, he bade Cleomenes send away the child and listen to him; for the daughter of Cleomenes was standing by him, whose name was Gorgo, and this as it chanced was his only child, being of the age now of eight or nine years. Cleomenes however bade him say that which he desired to say, and not to stop on account of the child. Then Aristagoras proceeded to promise him money, beginning with ten talents, if he would accomplish for him that for which he was asking; and when Cleomenes refused, Aristagoras went on increasing the sums of money offered, until at last he had promised fifty talents, and at that moment the child cried out: "Father, the stranger will do thee hurt, 38 if thou do not leave him and go." Cleomenes, then, pleased by the counsel of the child, departed into another room, and Aristagoras went away from Sparta altogether, and had no opportunity of explaining any further about the way up from the sea to the residence of the king.

52. As regards this road the truth is as follows.—Everywhere there are royal stages 39 and excellent resting-places, and the whole road runs through country which is inhabited and safe. Through Lydia and Phrygia there extend twenty stages, amounting to ninety-four and a half leagues; 40 and after Phrygia succeeds the river Halys, at which there is a gate 4001 which one must needs pass through in order to cross the river, and a strong guard-post is established there. Then after crossing over into Cappadokia it is twenty-eight stages, being a hundred and four leagues, by this way to the borders of Kilikia; and on the borders of the Kilikians you will pass through two several gates and go by two several guard-posts: then after passing through these it is three stages, amounting to fifteen and a half leagues, to journey through Kilikia; and the boundary of Kilikia and Armenia is a navigable river called Euphrates. In Armenia the number of stages with resting-places is fifteen, and of leagues fifty-six and a half, and there is a guard-post on the way: then from Armenia, when one enters the land of Matiene, 41 there are thirty-four stages, amounting to a hundred and thirty-seven leagues; and through this land flow four navigable rivers, which cannot be crossed but by ferries, first the Tigris, then a second and third called both by the same name, 42 though they are not the same river nor do they flow from the same region (for the first-mentioned of them flows from the Armenian land and the other 43 from that of the Matienians), and the fourth of the rivers is called Gyndes, the same which once Cyrus divided into three hundred and sixty channels. 44 Passing thence into the Kissian land, there are eleven stages, forty-two and a half leagues, to the river Choaspes, which is also a navigable stream; and upon this is built the city of Susa. The number of these stages amounts in all to one hundred and eleven.

53. This is the number of stages with resting-places, as one goes up from Sardis to Susa: and if the royal road has been rightly measured as regards leagues, and if the league 45 is equal to thirty furlongs, 46 (as undoubtedly it is), the number of furlongs from Sardis to that which is called the palace of Memnon is thirteen thousand five hundred, the number of leagues being four hundred and fifty. So if one travels a hundred and fifty furlongs each day, just ninety days are spent on the journey. 47.

54. Thus the Milesian Aristagoras, when he told Cleomenes the Lacedemonian that the journey up from the sea to the residence of the king was one of three months, spoke correctly: but if any one demands a more exact statement yet than this, I will give him that also: for we ought to reckon in addition to this the length of the road from Ephesos to Sardis; and I say accordingly that the whole number of furlongs from the sea of Hellas to Susa (for by that name the city of Memnon is known) is fourteen thousand and forty; for the number of furlongs from Ephesos to Sardis is five hundred and forty: thus the three months' journey is lengthened by three days added..

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References to "India..." in History of Herodotus, by Herodotus

89. Having so done in Persia, he established twenty provinces, which the Persians themselves call satrapies; and having established the provinces and set over them rulers, he appointed tribute to come to him from them according to races, joining also to the chief races those who dwelt on their borders, or passing beyond the immediate neighbours and assigning to various races those which lay more distant. He divided the provinces and the yearly payment of tribute as follows: and those of them who brought in silver were commanded to pay by the standard of the Babylonian talent, but those who brought in gold by the Euboïc talent; now the Babylonian talent is equal to eight-and-seventy Euboïc pounds. 74 For in the reign of Cyrus, and again of Cambyses, nothing was fixed about tribute, but they used to bring gifts: and on account of this appointing of tribute and other things like this, the Persians say that Dareios was a shopkeeper, Cambyses a master, and Cyrus a father; the one because he dealt with all his affairs like a shopkeeper, the second because he was harsh and had little regard for any one, and the other because he was gentle and contrived for them all things good.

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192, and as to the resources of the Babylonians how great they are, I shall show by many other proofs and among them also by this:—For the support of the great king and his army, apart from the regular tribute the whole land of which he is ruler has been distributed into portions. Now whereas twelve months go to make up the year, for four of these he has his support from the territory of Babylon, and for the remaining eight months from the whole of the rest of Asia; thus the Assyrian land is in regard to resources the third part of all Asia: and the government, or satrapy as it is called by the Persians, of this territory is of all the governments by far the best; seeing that when Tritantaichmes son of Artabazos had this province from the king, there came in to him every day an artab full of silver coin (now the artab is a Persian measure and holds more than the medimnos of Attica 197 by three Attic choinikes); and of horses he had in this province as his private property, apart from the horses for use in war, eight hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares, for each of these stallions served twenty mares: of Indian hounds moreover such a vast number were kept that four large villages in the plain, being free from other contributions, had been appointed to provide food for the hounds.

A dog in a Khampa camp in the hills around Yatung. On Tibetan New Year's Day Hopkinson found himself left alone and was able to take a walk and to climb a nearby mountainside. He was surprised to come across a vicious dog, which was owned by a group of Khampa people, whom he was then able to photograph. -- A. J. Hopkinson's Tour of Duty as British Trade Agent, Gyantse, 1927-28

By all the inhabited huts are found fierce, pugnacious dogs. Mostly they are chained up and by their barking at night protect the cattle from leopards, wolves and wild dogs. Very powerfully built, their usual diet of milk and calves’ flesh gives them enormous strength. They are really dangerous, and I had several disagreeable encounters with them. Once one of these dogs broke loose from his chain as I came up and sprang at my throat. I parried his attack, and he sank his teeth into my arm and did not let go till I had wrestled him down. My clothes hung in rags from my body, but the dog lay motionless on the ground. I bound up my wounds with what remained of my shirt, but I still bear deep scars on my arm. My wounds healed very quickly as a result of prolonged baths in the hot springs, which at this season of the year are more frequented by snakes than by Tibetans. The herdsmen told me later that I was not the only sufferer from this battle. The dog had lain in his corner and refused to eat for a week afterwards.

-- Seven Years in Tibet, by Heinrich Harrer

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94. The Paricanians and Ethiopians in Asia brought in four hundred talents: this is the seventeenth division. To the Matienians and Saspeirians and Alarodians was appointed a tribute of two hundred talents: this is the eighteenth division. To the Moschoi and Tibarenians and Macronians and Mossynoicoi and Mares three hundred talents were ordered: this is the nineteenth division. Of the Indians the number is far greater than that of any other race of men of whom we know; and they brought in a tribute larger than all the rest, that is to say three hundred and sixty talents of gold-dust: this is the twentieth division.

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98. Now this great quantity of gold, out of which the Indians bring in to the king the gold-dust which has been mentioned, is obtained by them in a manner which I shall tell:—That part of the Indian land which is towards the rising sun is sand; for of all the peoples in Asia of which we know or about which any certain report is given, the Indians dwell furthest away towards the East and the sunrising; seeing that the country to the East of the Indians is desert on account of the sand. Now there are many tribes of Indians, and they do not agree with one another in language; and some of them are pastoral and others not so, and some dwell in the swamps of the river 88 and feed upon raw fish, which they catch by fishing from boats made of cane; and each boat is made of one joint of cane. These Indians of which I speak wear clothing made of rushes: they gather and cut the rushes from the river and then weave them together into a kind of mat and put it on like a corslet.

99. Others of the Indians, dwelling to the East of these, are pastoral and eat raw flesh: these are called Padaians, and they practise the following customs:—whenever any of their tribe falls ill, whether it be a woman or a man, if a man then the men who are his nearest associates put him to death, saying that he is wasting away with the disease and his flesh is being spoilt for them: 89 and meanwhile he denies stoutly and says that he is not ill, but they do not agree with him; and after they have killed him they feast upon his flesh: but if it be a woman who falls ill, the women who are her greatest intimates do to her in the same manner as the men do in the other case. For 90 in fact even if a man has come to old age they slay him and feast upon him; but very few of them come to be reckoned as old, for they kill every one who falls into sickness, before he reaches old age.

100. Other Indians have on the contrary a manner of life as follows:—they neither kill any living thing nor do they sow any crops nor is it their custom to possess houses; but they feed on herbs, and they have a grain of the size of millet, in a sheath, which grows of itself from the ground; this they gather and boil with the sheath, and make it their food: and whenever any of them falls into sickness, he goes to the desert country and lies there, and none of them pay any attention either to one who is dead or to one who is sick.

101. The sexual intercourse of all these Indians of whom I have spoken is open like that of cattle, and they have all one colour of skin, resembling that of the Ethiopians: moreover the seed which they emit is not white like that of other races, but black like their skin; and the Ethiopians also are similar in this respect. These tribes of Indians dwell further off than the Persian power extends, and towards the South Wind, and they never became subjects of Dareios.

102. Others however of the Indians are on the borders of the city of Caspatyros and the country of Pactyïke, dwelling towards the North 91 of the other Indians; and they have a manner of living nearly the same as that of the Bactrians: these are the most warlike of the Indians, and these are they who make expeditions for the gold. For in the parts where they live it is desert on account of the sand; and in this desert and sandy tract are produced ants, which are in size smaller than dogs but larger than foxes, for 92 there are some of them kept at the residence of the king of Persia, which are caught here. These ants then make their dwelling under ground and carry up the sand just in the same manner as the ants found in the land of the Hellenes, which they themselves 93 also very much resemble in form; and the sand which is brought up contains gold. To obtain this sand the Indians make expeditions into the desert, each one having yoked together three camels, placing a female in the middle and a male like a trace-horse to draw by each side. On this female he mounts himself, having arranged carefully that she shall be taken to be yoked from young ones, the more lately born the better. For their female camels are not inferior to horses in speed, and moreover they are much more capable of bearing weights.

103. As to the form of the camel, I do not here describe it, since the Hellenes for whom I write are already acquainted with it, but I shall tell that which is not commonly known about it, which is this:—the camel has in the hind legs four thighs and four knees, 94 and its organs of generation are between the hind legs, turned towards the tail.

104. The Indians, I say, ride out to get the gold in the manner and with the kind of yoking which I have described, making calculations so that they may be engaged in carrying it off at the time when the greatest heat prevails; for the heat causes the ants to disappear underground. Now among these nations the sun is hottest in the morning hours, not at midday as with others, but from sunrise to the time of closing the market: and during this time it produces much greater heat than at midday in Hellas, so that it is said that then they drench themselves with water. Midday however has about equal degree of heat with the Indians as with other men, while after midday their sun becomes like the morning sun with other men, and after this, as it goes further away, it produces still greater coolness, until at last at sunset it makes the air very cool indeed.

105. When the Indians have come to the place with bags, they fill them with the sand and ride away back as quickly as they can, for forthwith the ants, perceiving, as the Persians allege, by the smell, begin to pursue them: and this animal, they say, is superior to every other creature in swiftness, so that unless the Indians got a start in their course, while the ants were gathering together, not one of them would escape. So then the male camels, for they are inferior in speed of running to the females, if they drag behind are even let loose 95 from the side of the female, one after the other; 96 the females however, remembering the young which they left behind, do not show any slackness in their course. 97 Thus it is that the Indians get most part of the gold, as the Persians say; there is however other gold also in their land obtained by digging, but in smaller quantities.

106. It seems indeed that the extremities of the inhabited world had allotted to them by nature the fairest things, just as it was the lot of Hellas to have its seasons far more fairly tempered than other lands: for first, India is the most distant of inhabited lands towards the East, as I have said a little above, and in this land not only the animals, birds as well as four-footed beasts, are much larger than in other places (except the horses, which are surpassed by those of Media called Nessaian), but also there is gold in abundance there, some got by digging, some brought down by rivers, and some carried off as I explained just now: and there also the trees which grow wild produce wool which surpasses in beauty and excellence that from sheep, and the Indians wear clothing obtained from these trees.

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40. These are the parts of Asia which tend towards the West from the Persian land; but as to those which lie beyond the Persians and Medes and Saspeirians and Colchians towards the East and the sunrising, on one side the Erythraian Sea runs along by them, and on the North both the Caspian Sea and the river Araxes, which flows towards the rising sun: and Asia is inhabited as far as the Indian land; but from this onwards towards the East it becomes desert, nor can any one say what manner of land it is.

The Periplus claims that Greek buildings and wells exist in Barigaza, falsely attributing them to Alexander the Great, who never went this far south.[???!!!] [NO CITATION!] This account of a kingdom tracing its beginnings to Alexander's campaigns and the Hellenistic Seleucid empire that followed:

The metropolis of this country is Minnagara, from which much cotton cloth is brought down to Barygaza. In these places there remain even to the present time signs of the expedition of Alexander, such as ancient shrines, walls of forts and great wells.

— Periplus, §41

-- Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, by Wikipedia

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44. Of Asia the greater part was explored by Dareios, who desiring to know of the river Indus, which is a second river producing crocodiles of all the rivers in the world,—to know, I say, of this river where it runs out into the sea, sent with ships, besides others whom he trusted to speak the truth, Skylax also, a man of Caryanda. These starting from the city of Caspatyros and the land of Pactyïke, sailed down the river towards the East and the sunrising to the sea; and then sailing over the sea Westwards they came in the thirtieth month to that place from whence the king of the Egyptians had sent out the Phenicians of whom I spoke before, to sail round Libya. After these had made their voyage round the coast, Dareios both subdued the Indians and made use of this sea. Thus Asia also, excepting the parts of it which are towards the rising sun, has been found to be similar 44 to Libya.

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3. Now the Thracian race is the most numerous, except the Indians, in all the world: and if it should come to be ruled over by one man, or to agree together in one, it would be irresistible in fight and the strongest by far of all nations, in my opinion. Since however this is impossible for them and cannot ever come to pass among them, 2 they are in fact weak for that reason. They have many names, belonging to their various tribes in different places; but they all follow customs which are nearly the same in all respects, except the Getai and Trausians and those who dwell above the Crestonians.

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9. Having thus spoken he ceased; and after him Mardonios said: "Master, thou dost surpass not only all the Persians who were before thee, but also those who shall come after, since thou didst not only attain in thy words to that which is best and truest as regards other matters, but also thou wilt not permit the Ionians who dwell in Europe to make a mock of us, having no just right to do so: for a strange thing it would be if, when we have subdued and kept as our servants Sacans, Indians, Ethiopians, Assyrians, and other nations many in number and great, who have done no wrong to the Persians, because we desired to add to our dominions, we should not take vengeance on the Hellenes who committed wrong against us unprovoked. (a) Of what should we be afraid?—what gathering of numbers, or what resources of money? for their manner of fight we know, and as for their resources, we know that they are feeble; and we have moreover subdued already their sons, those I mean who are settled in our land and are called Ionians, Aiolians, and Dorians. Moreover I myself formerly made trial of marching against these men, being commanded thereto by thy father; and although I marched as far as Macedonia, and fell but little short of coming to Athens itself, no man came to oppose me in fight. (b) And yet it is true that the Hellenes make wars, but (as I am informed) very much without wise consideration, by reason of obstinacy and want of skill: for when they have proclaimed war upon one another, they find out first the fairest and smoothest place, and to this they come down and fight; so that even the victors depart from the fight with great loss, and as to the vanquished, of them I make no mention at all, for they are utterly destroyed. They ought however, being men who speak the same language, to make use of heralds and messengers and so to take up their differences and settle them in any way rather than by battles; but if they must absolutely war with one another, they ought to find out each of them that place in which they themselves are hardest to overcome, and here to make their trial. Therefore the Hellenes, since they use no good way, when I had marched as far as the land of Macedonia, did not come to the resolution of fighting with me. (c) Who then is likely to set himself against thee, O king, offering war, when thou art leading both all the multitudes of Asia and the whole number of the ships? I for my part am of opinion that the power of the Hellenes has not attained to such a pitch of boldness: but if after all I should prove to be deceived in my judgment, and they stirred up by inconsiderate folly should come to battle with us, they would learn that we are the best of all men in the matters of war. However that may be, let not anything be left untried; for nothing comes of itself, but from trial all things are wont to come to men."

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65. The Indians wore garments made of tree-wool, and they had bows of reed and arrows of reed with iron points. Thus were the Indians equipped; and serving with the rest they had been assigned to Pharnazathres the son of Artabates.

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70. Of the Ethiopians above Egypt and of the Arabians the commander, I say, was Arsames; but the Ethiopians from the direction of the sunrising (for the Ethiopians were in two bodies) had been appointed to serve with the Indians, being in no way different from the other Ethiopians, but in their language and in the nature of their hair only; for the Ethiopians from the East are straight-haired, but those of Libya have hair more thick and woolly than that of any other men. These Ethiopians from Asia were armed for the most part like the Indians, but they had upon their heads the skin of a horse's forehead flayed off with the ears and the mane, and the mane served instead of a crest, while they had the ears of the horse set up straight and stiff: and instead of shields they used to make defences to hold before themselves of the skins of cranes.

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86. This is the manner of fighting of these men, and they were arrayed next to the Persians. The Medes had the same equipment as their men on foot, and the Kissians likewise. The Indians were armed in the same manner as those of them who served on foot, and they both rode horses 78 and drove chariots, in which were harnessed horses or wild asses. The Bactrians were equipped in the same way as those who served on foot, and the Caspians likewise. The Libyans too were equipped like those who served on foot, and these also all drove chariots. So too the Caspians 79 and Paricanians were equipped like those who served on foot, and they all rode on camels, which in swiftness were not inferior to horses.

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187. This is the number of the whole army of Xerxes; but of the women who made bread for it, and of the concubines and eunuchs no man can state any exact number, nor again of the draught-animals and other beasts of burden or of the Indian hounds, which accompanied it, could any one state the number by reason of their multitude: so that it does not occur to me to wonder that the streams of some rivers should have failed them, but I wonder rather how the provisions were sufficient to feed so many myriads; for I find on computation that if each man received a quart 189 of wheat every day and nothing more, there would be expended every day eleven myriads of medimnoi 190 and three hundred and forty medimnoi besides: and here I am not reckoning anything for the women, eunuchs, baggage-animals, or dogs. Of all these men, amounting to so many myriads, not one was for beauty and stature more worthy than Xerxes himself to possess this power.

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113. Xerxes meanwhile with his army stayed for a few days after the sea-fight, and then they all began to march forth towards Boeotia by the same way by which they had come: for Mardonios thought both that it was well for him to escort the king on his way, and also that it was now too late in the year to carry on the war; it was better, he thought, to winter in Thessaly and then at the beginning of spring to attempt the Peloponnese. When he came to Thessaly, then Mardonios chose out for himself first all those Persians who are called "Immortals," except only their commander Hydarnes (for Hydarnes said that he would not be left behind by the king), and after them of the other Persians those who wore cuirasses, and the body of a thousand horse: also the Medes, Sacans, Bactrians and Indians, foot and horsemen both. 82 These nations he chose in the mass, 83 but from the other allies he selected by few at a time, choosing whose who had fine appearance of those of whom he knew that they had done good service. From the Persians he chose more than from any other single nation, and these wore collars of twisted metal and bracelets; and after them came the Medes, who in fact were not inferior in number to the Persians, but only in bodily strength. The result was that there were thirty myriads in all, including cavalry.

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31. Meanwhile the Barbarians with Mardonios, when they had sufficiently mourned for Masistios, being informed that the Hellenes were at Plataia came themselves also to that part of the Asopos which flows there; and having arrived there, they were ranged against the enemy by Mardonios thus:—against the Lacedemonians he stationed the Persians; and since the Persians were much superior in numbers, they were arrayed in deeper ranks than those, and notwithstanding this they extended in front of the Tegeans also: and he ranged them in this manner,—all the strongest part of that body he selected from the rest and stationed it opposite to the Lacedemonians, but the weaker part he ranged by their side opposite to the Tegeans. This he did on the information and suggestion of the Thebans. Then next to the Persians he ranged the Medes; and these extended in front of the Corinthians, Potidaians, Orchomenians and Sikyonians. Next to the Medes he ranged the Bactrians; and these extended in front of the Epidaurians, Troizenians, Lepreates, Tirynthians, Mykenians and Phliasians. After the Bactrians he stationed the Indians; and these extended in front of the Hermionians, Eretrians, Styrians and Chalkidians. Next to the Indians he ranged the Sacans, who extended in front of the men of Amprakia, the Anactorians, Leucadians, Palians and Eginetans. Next to the Sacans and opposite to the Athenians, Plataians and Megarians, he ranged the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, Thessalians, and the thousand men of the Phokians: for not all the Phokians had taken the side of the Medes, but some of them were even supporting the cause of the Hellenes, being shut up in Parnassos; and setting out from thence they plundered from the army of Mardonios and from those of the Hellenes who were with him. He ranged the Macedonians also and those who dwell about the borders of Thessaly opposite to the Athenians.

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Part 1 of 2

The Real Impact of the Silk Road | Extra Long Historical Documentary
Get.factual
Nov 17, 2024

The Silk Road stands as one of humanity’s most transformative endeavors, connecting East and West across Eurasia for thousands of years. This documentary series examines its profound impact on history, shaping empires, spreading ideas, and revolutionizing civilizations. Today's extra long history documentary explores how the Silk Road influenced conflicts, from cavalry tactics to the invention of gunpowder. It then reveals how the route became a conduit for both life and disease, reshaping societies. Finally, it uncovers the pivotal role of Silk Road trade in driving the Age of Revolutions and shaping the modern world.



Transcript

[dramatic music] male narrator: Eurasia. The world's largest land mass.
Some 10,000 kilometers from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans.
A formidable distance, even in today's world.
And yet over that vast distance, human beings have pursued
one of history's greatest enterprises. The Silk Road.
A tremendously profitable trade route and so much more.
For thousands of years, exotic goods, new technologies,
conquering armies... [shouting] And brilliant ideas
traveled along the Silk Road.
[shouting] Silk Road trade helped to build empires
and to break them. It fanned the fires of revolution...
[booming] Drove great explorations,
and forged powerful bonds between faraway peoples.
- The Silk Road made human beings realize that there
are other people out there, and it opened the eyes of the east and the west.
narrator: This is the story of how Silk Road trade made so much more than money.
It's the epic tale of how the Silk Road helped create a world;
a world that created us.
2,000 years ago, the Roman Empire seemed unstoppable.
Rome had conquered much of Europe and was sending its legions beyond
the eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East-- gateway to the riches of Asia.
But a journey to the east could become a road of blood.
In 53 B.C.E. near the Mesopotamian town of Carrhae, the Parthians--
and empire blending Persian and Greek cultures-- confronted a Roman army.
The outcome of the battle seemed beyond doubt.
Some 40,000 Romans faced only 10,000 Parthians.
And Rome's Legions were Europe's finest foot soldiers. [chanting]
There was just one problem. The Parthian army didn't fight on foot.
- The Parthians, they were cavalry. They were horse archers. Versatile. Rode like the wind.
What the Romans did was what the Romans always did. They took a fixed position.
They were ordered into a hollow square defending all sides.
But that was nothing to the Parthian horse archers because they could just ride around them, and they did. They galloped around and around and around
and around, shooting as they went. [shouting]
Thousands and thousands of arrows loosed into those Romans.
[shouting] What the Romans eventually did was they were ordered
to go into testudo. That's that Roman formation where they lock their shields together
and put the next layer of shields to make a roof. Testudo is Latin for tortoise.
But the Parthians had the answer to this tortoise. They had a hammer to break open its shell.
narrator: The Parthian hammer was a cataphract-- a Greek word meaning clothed in full armor.
Horse and rider wore heavy coats of mail.
The cataphract was the ancient world equivalent of a battle tank.
At Carrhae, charging cataphracts broke open the testudo...
[shouting] Exposing the Romans inside to more arrow attacks.
Some 30,000 Romans were killed or captured.
Parthian losses were minor. It was one of Rome's worst military defeats.
But it may have been something else as well.
A Roman historian wrote that the Parthians dazzled the Romans with banners made of a beautiful fabric--silk.
That may only be a legend. But around the time of Carrhae,
Romans began coveting Chinese silk, and China began selling silk to Rome
in exchange for fine Roman glassware and gold...
Inspiring the name we give Eurasian trade today--
the Silk Road.
But long before Romans and Parthians fought at Carrhae, trade between the peoples of Eurasia were shaping lives, making new things possible,
and changing the world.
At Carrhae, the Parthians won with a style of warfare that had evolved centuries earlier
and thousands of kilometers away.
On the steppes of Central Asia...
An ocean of land... Where victory in battle, and life itself,
depended on moving very far, very fast.
Thousands of years before the battle of Carrhae, a transportation revolution took place
on these vast plains.
- There's good evidence for, uh, the existence of domesticated horses in what is today Kazakhstan
and southern Russia by 3500 B.C.
And we actually think that probably horses were domesticated and began to be ridden 500 or maybe
1,000 years before that, maybe as early as 4500 B.C. [horses whinnying]
narrator: The domestication of the horse was the first step towards cavalry warfare.
But the second step would be a long time coming.
- The first use of horses in warfare was with chariot warfare, and we have that well established--
Tutankhamun's chariot, uh, which many people have seen in museum exhibits.
And we know that people were using chariots in warfare starting in the Near East in about 16000, 17000 B.C.
Horses were not used as organized cavalry until after about 900 B.C., almost 1,000 years
after chariot warfare began. And it's always seemed odd to me that cavalry began
after chariotry. Chariotry is very difficult to manage.
You have to train horses to work together. They have to pull this clumsy vehicle
that has two people in it-- a driver and a warrior. Training the units to work together,
very difficult thing to do, whereas jumping on the back of a horse is an easy thing.
So why did cavalry come after chariotry?
I think the real reason that, um, cavalry waited is that, uh, you needed to have really three innovations.
The earliest evidence for the recurved bow is in Shang Dynasty, China, probably dated between
1300 and 1100 B.C. narrator: Shang emperors communicated with their
ancestors by heating animal bones or turtle shells until they cracked and then interpreting the patterns
made by the cracks. One of these so-called oracle bones is carved
with the Chinese character for bow--the earliest known image of a recurved bow.
And in the tomb of Lady Fuhao-- and imperial consort and renowned military commander--
archaeologists found more evidence. - It's a thumb cover for drawing bow string
and there's another piece that went in the middle of a recurved bow, a hand grip. The bows themselves are not preserved,
so it's a difficult thing to identify the origins of the recurved bow.
The different components of it probably came from different places geographically.
narrator: Just how far the recurved bow traveled across Eurasia was revealed in 2005 at Yanghai
in China's Xinjiang region. Wooden bows rarely survive burial in the ground,
but Xinjiang's cold, dry climate preserved one in a 3,000-year-old tomb.
Other grave goods and the human remains found in the Yanghai tombs confirmed that the bow was made
by the Scythians--a highly sophisticated culture that originated in southern Russia and migrated
on horseback across the length and breadth of Eurasia.
The true birthplace of the recurved composite bow remains an archaeological mystery.
But there is no doubt that 3,000 years ago anyone who fought on horseback
would have found it revolutionary. - A bow is as strong as it is long.
It derives its strength from its length. And the recurved bow packs the same length into this very
short bow that can be swung over the horse's rear and over the horse's neck.
And it was much, much easier to use on horseback. And the recurved bows are technologically
quite difficult to make. It took a long time to develop the craft of bow making
to that point. - The recurve are all these sinewy bends--
reflex and deflex, that gives it in-built spring. But that can only be created with composite materials.
What we mean by that is it's made of a number of materials. The heart of it is wood, usually beech.
And then you have horn-- horn from a water buffalo, and then sinew-- the tendons of an animal.
That, when you bash it, you can tease apart and get these very fine fibers--
fibers with tremendous tensile strength. That has elasticity and spring,
and it stops the bow bursting apart. These are all materials that enhance the power, the spring,
of the bow. narrator: But only if bow makers could solve a very big problem.
How to keep such a powerful bow made from so many different materials from breaking up
when its own power was pulling it apart.
Somewhere in Eurasia, sometime long ago, some unknown genius discovered the answer.
- This is the swim bladder of a sturgeon-- fish from the Black Sea. And if you start to break these up then put it in hot water,
and you get this wonderful, viscous glue. This simple idea of making a glue out of a swim bladder
of a fish was a technological breakthrough of immense consequences.
It is what enabled the composite bow to exist. And in turn the composite bow was a military revolution
of far-reaching consequences.
narrator: The composite recurved bow gave birth to a new kind of warrior--
the horse archer. - The horse archer was able to shoot from the saddle in part because of the new technology
of the composite bow. They were short, compact bows, and that meant that you can shoot them from horseback.
You see I can cross to the other side of the horse. I can turn and shoot behind. It's much more suitable for shooting on horseback.
[dramatic music] narrator: Everyone who fought with Eurasian nomads,
whether as enemy or friend, wanted a recurved composite bow.
By the early first millennium B.C.E., it was in use from east Asia to eastern Europe.
A recurved bow gave a horse archer unprecedented killing power.
But it didn't make him a cavalryman. Before horse archers could fight as an effective
military force, they needed a large supply of identical arrows.
And that didn't exist.
- Arrowheads were a variety of different sizes and weights. Some were made of bone.
Some were made out of flint. Some were made out of bronze. All of them would be individually made
and you had to adjust your shot for the weight of different arrows. Also a unit of soldiers who were firing at the same time
would be firing arrows of slightly different weights and they might go different distances.
[dramatic music]
- One of the technological innovations was the invention of the socketed, uh, arrowhead.
They were made of bronze, usually, and, uh, they were made in a mould and cast in a mould,
so that an infinite number of socketed arrowheads of the same weight could be made from the same mould.
Making socketed projectile points was actually a big deal.
You have to have a mould with a core where the socket is going to be that you can pour molten metal around
so that it's the same thickness all the way around.
narrator: Making arrowheads of the same size and weight was another Central Asian technological revolution.
For the first time, mounted warriors could unleash coordinated arrow attacks on their enemies.
- With arrowheads of the same weight, every time you drew the bow to shoot,
you knew that you were firing an arrow that was exactly the same weight as the last arrow that you fired, uh,
so you could determine the range and the distance well. And also all of the archers that were firing
were firing arrowheads at the same weight at the same time. So the distance for all of them would be the same.
narrator: Archaeologists believe that sometime in the second millennium B.C.E., socketed bronze arrowheads began spreading east
while the composite recurved bow spread west. [dramatic music] Sometime around 900 B.C.E., socketed arrowheads
and recurved bows met in the Tarim Basin area of Central Asia,
brought together by traders, warriors, and migrating nomads.
- After about 700 B.C., you begin to see really thousands and thousands of arrowheads
and dozens of arrowheads in a single quiver in a grave. It's like they're being mass produced.
narrator: Bronze socketed arrowheads turned central Asia into an arsenal, but cavalries still couldn't exist
until warriors could become soldiers.
- It was really the age of heroic warfare-- individuals going out and doing great deeds
by themselves and attracting glory for their own name, and this is the kind of warfare that's described
in the "Iliad" the "Odyssey," uh, or in the "Rigveda," a religious text
that's at the deep roots of modern Hinduism. What had to change was a psychological change
in the nature of the warrior. You had to change from individuals to units
working under the command of a commanding general, who would attack and retreat upon command.
The psychological change from the heroic warrior to the soldier, uh, probably is a feature of urban warfare--
the armies that were associated with the great cities of Mesopotamia and Iran.
That psychology had to spread northward up into the steppes
and be accepted by warriors in--in the steppes, uh, in the same area where the recurved bows
and the socketed arrowheads were crossing. narrator: While recurved bows were spreading west
and socketed arrowheads were spreading east, the concept of military discipline was spreading north.
Sometime around 900 B.C.E., all three combined in the heart of central Asia.
- When those three things came together, cavalry became a really deadly form
of military force. narrator: A force that would severely test
the ancient world's most powerful armies.
2,000 years ago, as the Romans pushed east to expand their empire,
China was pushing west. And like the Romans, the Chinese encountered
a formidable enemy on horseback.
The Xiongnu were nomads from the Central Asian steppes. Armed with recurved bows and socketed arrows,
they fought under commanders as a disciplined military force.
[shouting] They raided Chinese villages
and plundered the growing trade between east and west, and no one could stop them.
- The Xiongnu was the migraine of the ancient world for the Chinese.
They simply just kept coming, and they would not stop.
The Xiongnu wanted the finest material goods produced by the Chinese.
[horse whinnying] [shouting] That is why they raided.
- Imagine you're a villager in China and these men come from nowhere. They come from over the hill without warning
tearing into your village. They shoot the headman. They shoot your husband. They chase the women out.
There is no hiding place, and there's a flurry of dust and arrows. They're in and they're out and they take the stuff
and they go. [shouting] narrator: China sent its military might
against the Xiongnu. The famed Terracotta Warriors reveal the size and power
of Chinese armies. But the Chinese fought on foot and from chariots.
Not effective against hit-and-run cavalry. A Chinese courtier wrote that the Xiongnu moved like
a flock of birds over the land, impossible to control.
- Once mounted warfare really became deadly and effective, it became a real problem.
If you're a farmer, the nomads know where you're going to be all the time. Your house is in the same place 12 months of the year,
and when your crops become ripe, you have to harvest, and the nomads know when that season is.
Whereas when you're trying to strike them back, it's impossible to know where they're going to be
or when they're going to be there. You have to search to find them.
narrator: To beat the Xiongnu, the Chinese needed soldiers who could fight like them.
They needed cavalry.
- There are manuals of warfare that were written to instruct Chinese warriors on how to counter the tactics
and the methods of the Xiongnu. Those manuals introduced the idea of cavalry
to the Chinese military. The Chinese military had not really used cavalry
before about probably 350 B.C. - Chinese military at first with some resistance
from the old aristocratic families said, "Well, my father fought on a chariot "and his father fought on a chariot
"and I'm gonna fight on a chariot in my long robes like my ancestors."
narrator: But it wasn't long before Chinese warriors traded their traditional long, flowing robes
for shorter tunics that didn't get in the way of fighting on horseback.
- Eventually the practicalities forced them to get rid
of their robes, to put on riding trousers, to learn to shoot the bow on horseback,
and they, too, became a mighty horse archer force.
narrator: Chinese cavalry became experts at shooting the recurved composite bow
and a lethal Chinese weapon, the crossbow.
While its cavalry trained, China agreed to Xiongnu demands for payments of money and silk
until the year 133 B.C.E., when Emperor Han Wudi refused to pay...
And sent his army to attack the Xiongnu.
[shouting]
[horse whinnying]
Chinese cavalry defeated the nomads.
And China seized new territories in the steppes...
Pacifying trade routes and opening new horizons.
- On one hand we have this perpetual conflict in-- in Chinese culture would be the Xiongnu
and the Han Chinese that created incessant warfare.
On the other hand, it is this conflict that demolished physical boundaries.
Even territory boundaries were constantly being pushed farther, pushed back between the two forces.
This was a stimulus for exchanges, for political changes,
for new ideas, for artistic traditions.
narrator: It was also a new era for the Silk Road. A fortune in Roman gold traveled east in exchange
for Chinese silks.
And the Central Asian kingdom of Kushan made its own fortune selling another luxury to China--
jade. Silk Road caravans passed through this border station
on China's western frontier. So many of them carried Kushan jade
that this station became known as the Jade Gate.
Chinese aristocrats coveted jade for its beauty and something more.
They believed that jade would keep them alive forever.
The ruling elite commissioned jade burial suits to preserve their bodies in the grave.
- They believed that upon death all the orifices should be plugged in to preserve the spirit
inside the person. And this notion of jade as a material with protective
power in the afterlife is further enhanced by the fact that they built an armor made of thousands
of pieces of jade. And of course if you're the emperor,
your--your jade armor would be made from the finest jade
from the western regions. narrator: During the Roman empire, Silk Road trade flourished
as Chinese, Persian, and Kushan armies kept the trade routes open across Eurasia.
[dramatic music]
China had leveled the battlefield with nomad raiders from the steppes.
But Central Asian horse archers were about to carve their names on history.
In the 4th century C.E., Europe was invaded by a Central Asian people whose name still evokes
barbaric cruelty. [shouting]
The Huns, who fought their way west, all the way to Rome.
European peoples like the Goths and Visigoths-- the so-called barbarians-- fled before their onslaught,
and sought refuge in Roman territory. When the Huns withdrew from the Roman world,
those barbarian refugees stayed. [shouting]
And the rest is history.
narrator: The western Roman empire was plunged into chaos
as barbarian tribes, dissatisfied with their lot, rebelled against Roman authority,
and weak Roman emperors failed to crush them.
As Rome declined, migrating horse archers called the Avars carved their own country
out of eastern Europe... Bringing with them another Asian military innovation.
The stirrup.
This Chinese statue from the fourth century C.E. is the earliest known depiction of stirrups.
Some 300 years later, an Avar horseman was riding with these stirrups across Hungary.
By the eighth century C.E., the stirrup had spread from one end of Eurasia to the other
and mounted warfare was entering a new era.
- The importance of the stirrup relates to what kinds of weapons can you use from horseback,
and it made it possible to use certain kinds of weapons from horseback that you couldn't use without stirrups.
Those weapons are the long sabre. You have to lean over and absorb shock
if you're going to use a long sabre in battle. And the stirrups allow the rider to absorb
the shock of contact with a stationary target. The other big weapon that was possible with stirrups
was a seated lance held under the arm. You could stab somebody with the lance and then remove it
riding past them without stirrups. But if you seated it under your arm and used
the lance as a shock weapon, it would knock you off the back of the horse if you didn't have stirrups.
So stirrups made it possible to use long swords and lances as shock weapons against stationary targets
and keep your seat, and of course that made it possible to have really heavy mounted warriors.
- Now the rider becomes a unit with the horse. He's so anchored with his stirrups,
anchored with this, and then with his long lance he becomes a single projectile unit.
[dramatic music] Man, horse, saddle, lance, all locked together
for the impact charge. This was the age of the medieval knight.
[horse whinnying]
narrator: A medieval knight's power came from combining the Asian stirrup and the ancient shock tactics
of the Persian cataphract with a European invention-- articulated plate armor.
[horse whinnying] Strong enough to protect the wearer from sword
and lance thrusts while light enough to allow him to move freely on horseback and on foot.
Heavy cavalry had never been a more potent weapon of war.
- Medieval mounted warfare could be warfare that generated a lot of force on the rider,
high impact warfare. In that case, the mounted warrior is being used
really as a shock weapon to strike the enemy.
narrator: But even Europe's formidable mounted knights would be outfought by Central Asian cavalry
that burst out of the steppes and changed the world.
- The largest conquest empire that the Earth has ever seen
was created by pastoral nomads from Central Asia.
narrator: In the 13th century, the Mongols conquered as far west as Poland and as far east
as the Sea of Japan.
Mongol armies combined the devastating shock tactics of horse archers with a highly sophisticated
military organization.
narrator: The Mongols have gone down in history as bloodthirsty killers, but they were also sophisticated,
open-minded, often generous conquerors.
They pacified the Silk Road.
Trade between west and east flourished under this Mongol-enforced peace-- the Pax Mongolica.
- Before the age of Pax Mongolica, banditry was a very serious problem for traders,
for caravans, along the Silk Road. The reputation of Genghis Khan and his descendents
created peace and safe passage along the Silk Road because bandits were so afraid
of the Mongol soldiers. - The Pax Mongolica,
the--the, uh, control of, uh,
trade and exchange that was made possible under the Mongols connected China with Europe
and with the Near East in a really close way for the first time in world history,
and that had a profound effect on the development of European civilization.
narrator: Protected by the Pax Mongolica, and anxious for good relations with the Mongol empire,
Europeans began traveling east as never before.
Merchants, missionaries, and diplomats flowed east along the trade routes,
bringing back popular Asian goods like cloth and spices
and tales of the wealth and wonders of the east. Some true, some fabulous, but all fascinating.
From Europe to China, Silk Road trade spread new knowledge of far-away lands.
- The Silk Road made human beings realize that
there are other people out there, and it opened the eyes of the east and the west.
narrator: The Italian cities of Venice and Genoa reaped huge rewards.
Their merchants traveled safely throughout Eurasia and founded trading posts on the Black Sea to receive
and pass on Silk Road goods. Their Silk Road profits funded
magnificent art and architecture. But their competition frequently plunged them
into war with one another. In one of these wars, Genoa captured
a prosperous Venetian merchant named Marco Polo. Imprisoned by the Genoese, Polo dictated the story
of his Silk Road journey to China to a fellow prisoner. - [speaking Italian]
narrator: Today, experts debate whether Marco Polo really visited China or was simply retelling stories
he had heard from fellow Silk Road travelers. - [speaking Italian]
But there's no debate that "The Travels of Marco Polo" was one of the most influential books
in all of human history. It tantalized Europe with tales of China's
immense wealth and advanced civilization.
- [speaking Italian] narrator: And years before Marco Polo was telling
those tales in a Genoese prison... - [speaking Italian] narrator: A Chinese invention was making its way
across Eurasia to the west.
Something created centuries earlier when an experiment ended very badly.
Ancient Chinese alchemists prepared potions of lead or mercury for their aristocratic patrons
who believed that drinking these metals would help them live forever.
Instead, those concoctions killed them or made them insane.
Another deadly combination was sulfur heated with an organic nitrate found in soil throughout China,
known today as saltpeter.
When alchemists experimented with this formula, it burst into flame, injuring the alchemists...
[explosion] And burning down their laboratory.
From that disaster was born a chemical mixture like none other.
It may have failed as an elixir of immortality, but it would prove to be a potent agent of death.
This Chinese Buddhist scroll dating from around 950 C.E. depicts demons surrounding a seated Buddha.
One demon holds what the Chinese called a huo quiang, or fire lance.
It's the earliest known image of a weapon powered by that deadly mixture of saltpeter and sulfur...
Known to history as gunpowder.
[shouting] In the early 13th century, the Mongols attacked
China's Jin Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty's army fought back with exploding gunpowder bombs.
But as the Mongols conquered more and more of China, Han Chinese artillerymen joined their armies
and marched west, bringing their gunpowder weapons with them.
The Mongols attacked Russian and Polish cities with exploding fire bombs. [explosions]
And Europeans found out the hard way what gunpowder could do.
By the end of the 13th century, the formula for gunpowder was known as far west
as England, and Europeans were inventing their own versions of the new weapons.
It wasn't long before this Chinese invention changed European history.
On 26th August, 1346 near the village of Crecy in northern France, the armies of France
and England prepared to fight.
Mounted on their war steeds, encased in their armor, the flower of French nobility formed their battle line...
[horse whinnying]
While the English deployed a very different force.
Thousands of expert archers.
The French sent their higher Genoese crossbowmen to attack the English before French knights annihilated them.
But the English king, Edward III, had spent years training his longbow men.
And all that training was about to pay off.
[grunting, shouting] - Nothing like this had been seen
on a western battlefield up to this time. The first time that a volley of arrows was unleashed
by the archers at Crecy would have represented something completely new to many of those
in the French army watching it. A cloud of arrows descending towards them.
It would have been frightening, and of course the effects almost immediate.
narrator: Showered by English arrows, the Genoese turned and ran,
and according to Medieval accounts of the battle, they were also panicked by another English weapon.
[explosion]
- Giovanni Villani, writing very soon after the battle, says in his chronicle that so loud and intimidating
was the noise created by the guns that they thought God was thundering. [explosions]
- The English guns cast iron balls by means of fire. They made a noise like thunder and caused much loss
in men and horses.
[shouting] - Noise like that would have been unprecedented
to the soldiers on the battlefield. Nothing in their lives could have prepared them for a--
a bang of that size and accompanied by smoke and acrid sulfur smell,
which would hang in the air. The impact of which, of course, they couldn't see until men around them dropped.
Not even professional soldiers like the Genoese would have experienced anything like this before in their lives.
That would have been terrifying, and it's no wonder that they scattered and ran.
- They turned and fled into the face of the oncoming French cavalry charge.
The French cavalry were now coming onto the battlefield and they were appalled at these people they'd hired
running away. And they cursed them and they rode into them,
and as many Genoese fell to French hooves as they did to English arrows and gunshots.
And the French Knights, all 12,000 of them, double the size of the English army, they came charging down onto the English.
[horses whinnying] And they, too, fell to the English arrows
and the English gunshot, and they came again and again and again.
15, 16 times, they came. And their horses were ripped to shreds and the men
were thrown from their horses. And those that weren't thrown, they had the opportunity that the dagger men rushed in
and they brought these knights down.
This was a moment in history where the world changed. It spelled the beginning of the end for the Medieval knight.
narrator: The Battle of Crecy has gone down in history as one of the earliest uses of gunpowder weapons
on a European battlefield.
[explosion] Some 500 years after it burned down
a Chinese alchemist's workshop, gunpowder had become destiny's weapon of choice.
After Crecy, it was only a matter of time until the fates of peoples and nations
were decided by the gun. [gunfire]
Within two centuries, Europeans would use their powerful gunpowder weapons to dominate the world.
Creating empires that would evolve into today's global trading culture...
Which binds people together by commerce instead of the gun.
But before Europe could embark on its empire-building adventure, its medieval social order would be shattered
by a catastrophic event. One that would forge a new Europe
in a crucible of horror.
While guns thundered at Crecy, something else was spreading along the Eurasian trade routes.
Something that would kill tens of millions of Europeans.
An apocalyptic destruction of human life that would lay the foundations of the modern world.
(Tense music) (Horses neighing)
NARRATOR: At the Battle of Crécy in 1346, the English won an historic victory over France.
Helped by a Chinese invention that had travelled to Europe.
(Hollering) NARRATOR: Gunpowder.
(Yelling) (Dramatic music)
(Horses neighing)
NARRATOR: And in the same year of 1346, some 2,000 kilometres east of Crécy,
another battle was taking place on the shores of the Black Sea.
(Hollering) NARRATOR: A Mongol army had been laying siege
to the Crimean port city of Caffa, a Silk Road trading post belonging to the Italian city of Genoa.
NARRATOR: The Mongols were masters of siege warfare.
But Caffa was still holding out after more than two years.
Suddenly, the Mongol army was decimated. Not by Caffa's defenders, but by an unknown disease.
The Mongols quickly ended their siege. But before they left Caffa,
they loaded their siege engines with the corpses of their dead and flung them over the city's walls,
believing that the stench of death would kill the defenders.
Medieval chronicles say that Caffa's defenders did die by the thousands,
but not from the smell of death. (Tense music)
NARRATOR: One year later, in 1347, the same disease that had killed the Mongols at Caffa
was killing people in Constantinople. (Computer beeping) NARRATOR: By 1348,
it was killing people across Western Europe.
By 1350, it was killing people as far away as Greenland.
(Soft music) NARRATOR: And terrified Europeans had given it a name.
NARRATOR: The Black Death. In just under a decade, from 1347 to 1356,
the Black Death killed at least 25 million Europeans. One third of Europe's population.
Today, most scholars believe that the Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague.
that was transmitted to humans by infected fleas living on rats.
And we believe that it spread across Eurasia by hitching a ride with armies, ships, and caravans
along trade routes that were already ancient by the time of the Black Death.
Micro-organic travellers of all kinds have moved across Eurasia for thousands of years.
A bio-migration that has had as big an impact on history as the more famous exchanges
of new technologies and luxury goods. And as a recent discovery shows,
tiny living things moving along the Silk Road brought life as well as death.
MARTIN: We were putting together some new methods of looking for early agriculture, and for that we needed to do a--a survey
of all the finds of early crops in Europe. When you looked at a map of all of Europe,
then you could see there were these Chinese crops in small numbers very early on in Europe.
NARRATOR: "Very early on" was around 2,000 BCE,
when a Chinese grain called broomcorn millet appears in the Eastern European archaeological record.
MARTIN: The actual crop itself will--will decay or be eaten, but, uh, rather fortunately, if it's cooked
and over-burnt, it turns to carbon. That will stay in the archaeological record
for a long time. (Dramatic music) NARRATOR: In the Chinese province of inner Mongolia,
archaeologists are studying the origins of broomcorn millet, one of the world's oldest domestic crops.
NARRATOR: But it isn't clear just how and why broomcorn millet travelled thousands of kilometres across Eurasia,
through some of the world's harshest environments, all the way to Europe.
Millet's long journey may have begun simply because it travelled so well.
Millets are essentially cereals, but they're very small. And because they have very small brains,
they're hardy and they're tough, and they can grow quite fast. Broomcorn millet, at a push,
can get from seed to seed in 45 days. You can plant a seed in the ground
and 45 days later, in the right conditions, you may have plants. That's incredibly fast.
So if you're moving around parts of Asia, where, on the one hand, there's a long winter,
a short growing season, and you can't particularly rely on rainfall, then something that gets a move on
in terms of its growth cycle is--is very valuable. (Horse chuffing)
MARTIN: There are accounts of communities that are on horseback for quite a lot of the time
and herding animals and so forth, but for that short-- short season of the year
that millet grows in, uh, they can actually sow the millet on horseback, trample it in with the horse's feet,
and then either leave a few teenagers there to scare the birds off for a couple of months, come back two months later, and harvest the crops.
(Dramatic music) NARRATOR: Millet was a highly mobile grain,
but there wasn't any evidence of how it might have travelled from its home in northern China.
NARRATOR: Until archaeologists found signs of millet cultivation around 2500 BCE in the foothills
of the Tian Shan Mountains in central Asia. (Tense music)
MARTIN: At that point we asked ourselves, "Well--well, what is it about these foothills?" You know, "Why the foothills?"
Clearly, it's about water. If one travels across the centre of Asia,
one realizes why water is a key. And wherever you are in Asia, it can be very dry, of course.
But if one goes uphill to those foothills, then one has somewhere where there will be streams
running off the mountains and water.
NARRATOR: Archaeologists found that around 1,000 BCE, millet farmers left the Tian Shan foothills
and their reliable water supply and began moving into much harsher environments.
MARTIN: We can, see, uh, if you like, the confidence of farmers spreading out from where the water
is really safe to areas where you have to know more about the water and the landscape and the geography,
both into the steppe to the north and to the desert to the south.
NARRATOR: Millet's local migrations may have linked it with the world. Migrating millet farmers in search of water
may have settled near trade routes.
And long-distance travellers would have chosen routes near reliable sources of food and water.
MARTIN: I think very much those traders are definitely working through networks
that are already centuries old. It's at least a millennium
before you see something crystallizing that you can start calling the Silk Road.
NARRATOR: Another discovery has revealed that this ancient grain migration wasn't only from east to west.
NARRATOR: Trading millet and wheat between China and Europe may have done much more than feed people.
(Soft music) NARRATOR: It may also have enabled profound social change.
MARTIN: Seeds germinate at one time of year and are harvested another time of year,
and that's kind of hardwired into their biology. And so farming is a one-season activity,
and there are things going on at other times of year. And during the second millennium BC,
a number of societies are doing something which is quite radically different, and that is putting more than one season in a single year.
Crops like millet are really useful for that, in that if you are a western farmer,
with wheat and barley fields reaching maturity during the summer and you think, "Right, with the same plot of land,
"I want to increase production. "And so I want another crop after I've harvested the first crop."
You can't do a long season, large-grain crop like wheat and barley again,
so something that's short and sharp like millet you can tag on to the end of it and catch another season before the winter's set in.
(Soft music) Interestingly, when you get to China, it's the converse.
You have this short season crop already there, and by rearranging your life, you can bring a long season crop
such as wheat and barley in at that stage. So the implications are, with the same plot of land,
you could basically get two harvests rather than one. So two sets of calories rather than one.
It may release some of the community to not farm at all and occupy roles within cities,
or as craftspeople, or leaders. (Dramatic music) MARTIN: If we look at the second millennium BC,
what we certainly see is at the same time as multi-cropping is there,
then there are a lot of the community-- are not farmers, but instead metalworkers,
or kings, or priests, or something else. And so what we see evidence of is multi-cropping allows
a non-farming, uh, sector within the community.
MARTIN: So what we have is a small, not very impressive-looking seed, but because of the way it grows and because of its biology,
it has a massive impact in changing the productivity of the heartlands of western farming.
So those western farmlands could, in the same area, produce two crops rather than one,
and that enabled a whole series of things that we associate with the word "civilization."
(Soft music)

[admin]

Part 2 of 2

NARRATOR: Finding Chinese millet in Europe
and European wheat and barley in China suggests that long before the Silk Road,
East and West were introducing one another to new foods, and that the movement of crops may have helped create
the earliest east-west trade routes.
And in the deserts of far western China, archaeologists have discovered another way
living organisms could travel the Silk Road. This is Xuanquanzhi Relay Station,
an archaeological site near the town of Dunhuang, a major stopping point on the Silk Road.
2,000 years ago during the Han dynasty, Xuanquanzhi was a very busy and very cosmopolitan place.
PIERS: It would be used for merchants, and it would also be used for government business. People could travel long distances
knowing that there was somewhere they could stay and be refreshed and recover, change their horses, and then move on to the next relay station.
The wonderful thing about the Xuanquanzhi trading post was that it's in a part of the country
that is not built up now, and the environment, very, very dry and often very cold in the winter,
means that things are preserved there very well. So a lot of the things with-- inside that trading post
have--have survived instead of decomposing.
NARRATOR: Excavators were especially excited to find something that perhaps only an archaeologist could love.
The 2,000-year-old equivalent of toilet paper. PIERS: In China, they wrote back in-- in the Han dynasty times
how they would have a stick with cloth wrapped on the end for people to wipe themselves with, and there were quite a few of these sticks
thrown into the latrine, as if people discarded them in there when they'd finished. These sticks have been found at some other excavations in China as well,
but what's great about this particular relay station is we still have the cloth wrapped on the end, and we still have the human faeces on.
(Tense music) PIERS: So we scraped off the dried faeces from the cloth
and took them to the lab. We found four different species of parasite in those who used this latrine.
Two of the species are spread by faeces contaminating your food or your hands or your drink.
It's roundworm and whipworm. Another species was a kind of tapeworm that they probably acquired
by eating raw or undercooked pork. And then, we found the really exciting find,
which was the Chinese liver fluke. PIERS: This is a small flatworm
that lives in eastern and southern China and in Korea. It can only survive in marshy, wet places.
But here, we found it 1 1/2 thousand kilometres away from anywhere that has it in modern times.
So it wasn't what we expected to find. It was brilliant that we could find it on the Silk Road.
The liver fluke requires a lifecycle where it passes through freshwater snails, and through small fish, and then, bigger fish.
And if you cook the fish, then you don't get the liver fluke. But if you eat the fish raw, then it hatches out
in your stomach, migrates through your body, crawls into the liver, and then develops there.
There was no way that people in the area of this relay station could have caught it in that particular area because it was far too dry.
There were no lakes. There were no freshwater snails and fish for them to infect.
NARRATOR: The finds at Xuanquanzhi have shown that humans could carry diseases long distances along the Silk Road.
(Soft music) NARRATOR: Another discovery has revealed
what could happen when they did.
In 2009, German scientists began investigating a puzzling discovery
in the Bavarian town of Aschheim.
NARRATOR: The Aschheim mass burial was an archaeological enigma, but there was one crucial clue.
The bodies had been buried during the 6th century CE.
(Computer beeping) (Tense music) NARRATOR: In the 6th century,
a terrifying illness called the Plague of Justinian ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire.
NARRATOR: It killed 30 to 50 million people in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Nearly half of all the people on Earth.
NARRATOR: The Justinian plague arrived in Constantinople on ships from Egypt,
but what the disease was and where it came from remained unknown.
The team investigating Aschheim's mass burial hoped its bones might reveal the answer.
NARRATOR: Studies like the Aschheim DNA project have concluded that 800 years before the Black Death,
plague travelled the Silk Road and that centuries later, the Black Death followed in its path.
(Tense music) NARRATOR: Most scholars now agree that the Black Death
originated in central Asia and that it first reached Europe
on Italian merchant ships returning from the East.
NARRATOR: The Black Death killed with incredible speed.
Victims had only a week to a few hours to live.
Entire towns and monasteries were wiped out, and no one knew what to do.
PIERS: It may have spread about five miles a day, which is a lot faster than a lot of modern bubonic plague outbreaks.
Whether it was because of the rate at which people fled from it that spread it faster than it might otherwise have been.
And it certainly was something that had a dramatic effect on people in Europe. They all wrote about it. They were all scared of it.
(Speaking foreign language) (Soft music)
PIERS: So they had some concept of contagion and the idea that the disease could be spread from one person to another, but they didn't know how.
They had no idea about bacteria or the spread of microorganisms at that stage,
so they hadn't worked out how a disease was spread. But they just realized that one person seemed to be able to spread it to the rest of their family,
so they realized something must be happening there. (Tense music)
NARRATOR: Baffled physicians consulted the works of ancient authorities like Hippocrates,
who lived four centuries before the birth of Jesus,
and Galen, who lived two centuries after Jesus' death.
(Tense music) NARRATOR: Hippocrates and Galen believed that illness was a result
of an imbalance among four so-called humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
PIERS: The theory was that if you had your four humours in balance-- your blood, your phlegm, your black bile,
and your yellow bile, then you'd be healthy. If they came out of balance or if you had corruption
of one of your humours, then that would make you unwell. So the treatments that doctors used
were largely based on their understanding of humoural theory. So at the beginning, they tried the normal treatments
of dietary modification and bloodletting and baths and so on, but they had no effect.
(Dramatic music) PIERS: They believed that bad vapours were coming up from the ground,
making people ill, affecting their humours. They believed that a strong southerly wind
was a bad thing that made a lot of people ill, That it was a combination of the alignments of the planets,
because they believed in astrology and its effect on your risk of disease.
They really didn't have a structured medical approach to how to deal with it. It took everyone off guard.
No one knew how to deal with it. The doctors were effectively powerless.
(Indistinct shouting)
NARRATOR: Some citizens attempted another cure.
Jews in Europe suffered fewer deaths from plague. That may have been because they were socially isolated
and practiced better hygiene than the general population.
But surviving the Black Death cost thousands of European Jews their lives.
All across plague-stricken Europe, the already age-old Christian prejudice against Jews
exploded into murderous hatred. PIERS: They believed that people with leprosy or Jewish people
may have actually exacerbated the plague by poisoning people.
So this is a sign of how panicked and how worried everybody was, that they were thinking of really quite bizarre kind of interpretations
as to why everybody was becoming sick. (Indistinct yelling)
NARRATOR: While mobs murdered Jews, physicians tried to stop the Black Death.
When traditional theories of disease failed, they resorted to studying the disease itself.
(Tense music)
NARRATOR: They were desperate to understand what was causing the Black Death,
how it spread, and how to treat it.
Slowly, they found answers.
PIERS: They tried various treatments, but no medicines had any effect. But that's why they moved over time
to trying to restrict the contact of people, burning the clothes of people that had died rather than giving them to other people.
And they realized that the clothes and spread of people was an important way they could stop the spread of disease.
So we have the introduction of concept of quarantine, where people weren't allowed to move from one area to another
if there was a plague outbreak and also that when sailors in ships arrived in a port,
they may have to stay in a quarantined area for a certain number of days until they were found to be clear of the disease, and then they could
move inland and actually go into town.
NARRATOR: Over time, this new trial and error approach would spawn a medical revolution.
Some 200 years after the Black Death, the brilliant physician Andreas Vesalius
published meticulous studies of the human body that exploded ancient and medieval theories
and gave birth to modern anatomy. Europe's battle against the Black Death
taught lessons that helped create modern medicine. And even centuries later,
the Black Death still has much to teach. So this is a skull of a man
who survived the Black Death and died in Cambridge in the later part of the 1300s.
We know he survived the Black Death because we have a radiocarbon date that's shown when he died, and we know he was a fairly old individual.
(Tense music) One of the things we're doing here is a project looking at the effect of the bubonic plague
upon the British population, specifically in Cambridge. And what we're trying to find out is what are different about people who survived compared with people who died.
That way, we can work out how the Black Death really changed the population of Britain
and what our population might have been like had half of us not died in the mid-1300s.
And to do that, we're looking at the genetics, the height, the health, and many other aspects
of the skeletons that we find who died before the Black Death and the ones who died afterwards
so we can see the effect of this epidemic upon people in Britain. So what we're hoping to find out is what is different
about the genes of the people that survived. Did they somehow have a better resistance to bubonic plague than other people,
or was it just mere chance as to who survived and who died? (Tense music)
NARRATOR: Those who did survive led better lives as the greatest horror of their age gave way to a new era.
NARRATOR: The Black Death had decimated Europe's workforce.
Desperate for labour, the nobility had to compete for surviving workers by offering higher wages.
(Soft music)
PIERS: Over the next few centuries, we see a complete rebalancing in the population.
So the poor hungry farmers who didn't have enough land were suddenly in a different position. The farmers around them had died.
Their income could go up because they could farm much more land. And so there was less poverty and famine among the farmers.
NARRATOR: Opportunities increased due to the shortage of workers.
Women could now be scribes and hold other jobs formerly reserved for men.
The European middle class was born.
The fact that we then had fewer people able to do manual labour means that not only
did the price of their labour go up so then they had better income.
It also means that there seems to have been a number of inventions made specifically for labour-saving devices.
We find the introduction of the spinning wheel. We find horizontal looms. We find fulling mills.
We had blast furnaces, mechanized tools, and we have three-masted ships
that could hold a lot more cargo for only a small number of more sailors, so it's a much more efficient way of trade.
So over the next 200 years or so, we see big improvements in mechanization.
And the fact that-- fewer people around meant that these things may have been invented because
of the shortage of people following the Black Death. (Soft music)
NARRATOR: Newly affluent Europeans created a bigger market for exotic imported goods.
(Indistinct chatter)
NARRATOR: Especially for one faraway luxury traded since ancient times along the Silk Road.
(Bright music) NARRATOR: Spices.
NARRATOR: In the late Middle Ages, Asian spices like pepper, cinnamon, and cloves
were highly valuable commodities. (Indistinct chatter)
NARRATOR: In London, dockworkers' bonuses were paid with Indonesian cloves.
In Venice, people bought houses with pepper.
NARRATOR: Anyone brave enough to seek out spices could get very, very rich.
And trading in spices meant travelling the trade routes between East and West.
NARRATOR: Venetian merchants travelled those routes and dominated the spice trade.
Europe had to pay whatever Venice demanded.
Venice became a fabulously wealthy city, while the rest of Europe grumbled and paid.
(Soft music) Meanwhile, China was also making epic voyages
to the spice lands and developing some of the world's most advanced maritime technology.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, foreign visitors to China were awed by the size
and sophistication of Chinese vessels. In the year 1345, the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta
wrote of seeing massive ships that could carry a thousand men, the only ships big enough
to make the long journey from China to India. (Speaking Italian)
NARRATOR: And Marco Polo told of sailing on a Chinese spice trading vessel in the year 1292 CE.
The experience deeply impressed him.
He claimed the Chinese ship he sailed on was capable of holding 5,000 to 6,000 baskets of pepper,
a much bigger cargo than the spice ships of his native Venice could hold.
And that his vessel was escorted by smaller ships that could carry a thousand pepper baskets.
(Tense music) NARRATOR: Polo embarked on his journey from the Chinese port of Quanzhou,
a place he described as teeming with hundreds of vessels from China and from distant lands.
But he didn't report his vessel's exact dimensions, leaving historians to wonder
if he'd exaggerated the ship's size or even if he'd actually sailed on it.
And then, in 1973, Chinese archaeologists found a shipwreck in Quanzhou Harbour.
NARRATOR: The Quanzhou Ship was carrying rare woods from Java and Cambodia, frankincense from Arabia,
even ambergris from Somalia. (Soft music)
NARRATOR: It sank in the year 1277, just 15 years before Marco Polo visited Quanzhou.
And its design and construction were remarkably advanced for their time, featuring watertight compartments
and other innovations centuries before Western vessels had them.
NARRATOR: 35 metres long and 10 metres wide, the Quanzhou Ship could have been
one of the smaller vessels that escorted Marco Polo's bigger ship. (Tense music)
NARRATOR: And there's also evidence that very large Chinese trading vessels did exist.
NARRATOR: This park in the Chinese city of Nanjing is built on the remains of a shipyard dating from the 14th century.
When they excavated that shipyard, archaeologists found two giant rudder posts,
each of them over 10 metres long.
NARRATOR: Chinese records speak of giant treasure ships carrying trade goods on epic journeys to faraway lands.
Commanded by the distinguished admiral Zheng He, a Chinese armada called the Great Fleet
made seven voyages between the years 1405 and 1433.
From Liugiagang in China's Jiangsu Province, the fleet sailed on diplomatic missions to southeast Asia,
the great Indian seaport of Calicut, Arabia, and along Africa's east coast, forging relationships
that linked seaborne and overland trade. Over 300 ships carrying nearly 30,000 men
sailed on the first of those expeditions. (Dramatic music) NARRATOR: Chronicles of those voyages
claim that the largest of Zheng He's ships were over 130 metres long and over 50 metres wide.
NARRATOR: But marine engineers doubt ships that big would have been seaworthy.
The American clipper ship "Great Republic" launched in 1853,
was 102 metres long and 16 metres wide.
In 1872, her leaking hull sank her in a hurricane.
The "Wyoming," built in 1909, was 110 metres long.
(Soft music) NARRATOR: Its extreme length made it
structurally unstable in heavy seas.
In 1924, the "Wyoming" sank during a storm.
If Zheng He's treasure ships were as big as Chinese chronicles claim,
they would have been as long and wide as the "Wyoming" and longer than the "Great Republic."
NARRATOR: Whatever the size of its ships, the Great Fleet deeply impressed maritime trading nations from Indochina to Africa.
China seemed poised to dominate the coveted spice trade.
But in 1433, Admiral Zheng He died.
About the same time, the Chinese court began losing interest in long-distance voyaging,
and Chinese seafaring entered a long decline.
Scarcely more than 100 years after the Great Fleet's last voyage, the emperor declared overseas voyaging a crime,
and it wasn't long before east-west trade suffered another blow.
(Computer beeping) NARRATOR: By the middle of the 15th century, the once-mighty Byzantine Empire
was in deep decline. The Ottoman Turks, descendants of central Asian nomads,
had conquered most of its territory. The Byzantine emperor ruled only his capital of Constantinople.
(Tense music)
NARRATOR: In the Spring of 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II
laid siege to Constantinople. (Clamouring)
NARRATOR: The city was defended by a mere 7,000 troops.
Mehmed had an army of some 80,000 men, but Mehmed wasn't sure he would win.
The city's massive walls had withstood sieges for a thousand years.
Protected by those walls, Constantinople's defenders held out for weeks.
(Clamouring) NARRATOR: But Mehmed didn't just have an army.
He had a mega-weapon: a bronze cannon nearly 10 metres long
with a barrel nearly a metre in diameter and 20 centimetres thick. It's said it could hurl a 450-kilogram
stone cannonball more than 1 1/2 kilometres. This behemoth and nearly 70 smaller cannon
bombarded Constantinople's walls day and night, damaging them so badly
that the Turks succeeded in taking the city. (Clamouring)
(Soft music)
NARRATOR: The fall of Constantinople was a devastating blow to Europe.
Constantinople had been one of Christendom's oldest and holiest cities.
Now it was the capital of a powerful Muslim empire renamed Istanbul from a Turkish word meaning "find Islam."
From their new capital of Istanbul, the Ottomans now controlled access to the Black Sea
and the eastern Mediterranean. Europeans merchants were cut off from the Silk Road.
For nearly 100 years, Europeans had been growing wealthier and more and more eager to buy Asia's luxury goods.
Europe needed to find new routes to the East. (Tense music)
NARRATOR: And within 50 years of Constantinople's fall, it would.
At the Battle of Crécy and the siege of Constantinople...
An ancient Chinese invention, gunpowder, had helped transform medieval Europe.
(Soft music)
NARRATOR: Now another Chinese invention and European innovation
would help transform the future.
NARRATOR: Sometime in China's ancient past, some unknown person invented something new...
(water running) NARRATOR: By pounding plants until they fell apart...
(wet thudding) (flames crackling) NARRATOR: Then boiling them in water...
(flames crackling) (water sloshing)
NARRATOR: And then collecting the boiled plants on a screen and letting them dry,
making what the ancient Chinese called "refuse fibre"...
And what we know today as paper,
an invention so influential that some believe the Silk Road should have been named for it.
JONATHAN: I would call it the paper road, because I think paper was far more important than silk,
and that, you know silk is a very nice fabric. It's very strong; it's beautiful, lustrous, and stuff like that.
But it didn't have the impact on world history, I would argue, that paper did.
The Chinese believe that the court eunuch Cai Lun invented paper around the year 100 of the Common Era
and started using it for writing then. Chinese archaeologists, however,
have discovered examples of paper in the deserts of western China
that pre-date this by several centuries, perhaps three centuries or even more. NARRATOR: The Chinese probably
first used the new invention as a wrapping material, while they kept writing the old-fashioned way,
on strips of bamboo. JONATHAN: You can write so many characters
on a strip of bamboo that's maybe 40 centimetres long, or you know, 12 inches. The problem is, if you want to write a novel, for example,
or a long historical text, you need to have a whole pile of those bamboo strips and keep them together in order.
So that becomes heavy. Paper, which is made from plant materials,
from the cellulose in plants, can be made anywhere that plants grow.
So you can make it virtually anywhere in the world, out of virtually anything.
NARRATOR: By the early centuries of the Common Era, China was using paper in all the ways we do now,
even as facial tissue and toilet paper.
And it wasn't long before it travelled West along the Silk Road--
a journey that began as a pilgrimage. JONATHAN: The transformation of paper into a writing material
came just at the time that Buddhism was introduced to China.
Buddhists of China were interested in finding the original writings about the Buddha
and would travel to India to collect them. And so, it's thought
that the Chinese Buddhist monks and missionaries brought knowledge of paper and papermaking
with them to India to collect these Buddhist scriptures
and brought them back to China.
NARRATOR: Chinese Buddhists travelled to India along the Silk Road, detouring around the Himalayas through China's western desert
and turning the Silk Road oasis of Dunhuang into a magnificent Buddhist library.
In a desert without plants, Dunhuang monks made paper from rope and rags
and copied thousands of Buddhist texts they'd brought from India.
Thanks to Chinese Buddhism and to paper's obvious usefulness for keeping commercial accounts,
papermaking began to spread throughout Asia.
As the Chinese then disseminated Buddhism throughout East Asia,
they took knowledge of paper and papermaking to such places as Korea, Japan, Vietnam.
We know that this is certainly before the time of the Muslim conquest of Central Asia, which occurred around the year 700.
NARRATOR: In the eighth century C.E., Arab armies fighting in the name of a new religion, Islam,
thrust deep into Central Asia and clashed with Chinese forces.
During the same century, the Arab world began making its own paper,
something that's traditionally been explained with a story about an iconic victory of Arabs over Chinese.
(swords clanging) The Battle of Talas was a battle that took place between Muslim forces and Chinese forces
in central Asia in 751. According to the historian Atha Al Abi
who lived something like 250 years after the event, he says that at this battle,
Chinese papermakers were captured and that is how Muslims learned about papermaking.
It seems to me that this is a sort of nice but not terribly believable story.
Why would papermakers have been in the Chinese army? It's not as if, when you needed a sheet of paper,
then you said, "Please, make me a sheet of paper." (swords clanging, men shouting indistinctly)
NARRATOR: It's more likely that Arabs learned about paper by trading along the Silk Road and recognized its immense practical value.
Middle Easterners could write on Egyptian papyrus, but they had to buy papyrus from Egypt.
Paper they could make themselves. By the end of the eighth century,
Arab papermaking was well underway.
JONATHAN: The break-out moment for paper was when Muslim bureaucracy encountered it.
NARRATOR: Those bureaucrats ran the Abbasid Caliphate, founded around 750 C.E.
From their capital in Baghdad, the Abbasids ruled the greatest empire of its day.
JONATHAN: The administrators of the empire had responsibility to keep records
about who was paid what, who owed what, who owned what, who had to do what.
Less than a century of Muslims first encountering it in central Asia,
they were already making it in the capital of the empire. NARRATOR: And they quickly began using paper
for more than keeping records. In eighth-century Baghdad and across the Arab world,
the availability of cheap paper made possible one of humanity's greatest literary eras.
JONATHAN: Baghdad becomes a centre of learning where books are written, books are translated from other languages.
People wrote books on every possible subject, not only on words in the traditions of the Prophet,
but also cookbooks, popular literature, science, astronomy, geography,
translations of Greek books on mathematics, all sorts of subjects.
And this explosion of learning has long been known, but it's never been appreciated that it was based on the availability of paper.
NARRATOR: During the Middle Ages, an intellectual Golden Age flowered in Arab Spain.
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian scholars collaborated to translate, teach, and preserve
great works of science, mathematics, and philosophy.
One story about the library of the Cordovan Caliphate in Spain
in the year 960 or 970 or something like that says that there were 400,000 books
in the royal library. Now, that probably is an exaggeration.
So let's take a zero off it and say that there were 40,000 books, but that is still more than ten times
the number of books that was in the largest university library in Europe, several centuries later.
Because libraries in Europe were all on parchment and the libraries in the Muslim world were on paper.
NARRATOR: Spain was probably where Europeans first encountered paper.
But Italian merchants were also discovering it through long-distance trade.
This is a time when Christian merchants from Europe, from such cities as Pisa and Genoa, Venice,
are travelling to the cities of the Muslim world such as Cairo and Damascus
in search of exotic items, goods like spices and silks,
and they undoubtedly encountered paper.
Our first European use of paper would've been by merchants who had seen
Muslims using this stuff and must have brought it back.
NARRATOR: But at first, many Europeans were suspicious of paper. It seemed so flimsy compared with parchments
made from animal skins. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II,
for example, was familiar with paper but didn't think much of its qualities for preservation
or didn't know how long it would last, so he ordered all documents that had previously been copied on paper to be recopied onto parchment.
Similarly, the Abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable, knew about paper but said,
"Oh, it was really disgusting "that they made this stuff "from vile materials
rather than the pure reeds of the riverbed," meaning papyrus, or the skins of--of pure animals.
And he was worried that paper could be made from dirty or unclean things.
NARRATOR: But Europe's growing middle class was not concerned with paper's cleanliness.
A single parchment book needed 200 animal skins and cost a fortune.
And as it happened, geography had given Europeans the edge in mass-producing paper.
(bell tolling distantly) (water sloshing)
JONATHAN: The rivers in the Middle East tended not to flow fast enough to create enough water power,
whereas the greater variability in European terrain meant that you could harness the water power
more efficiently to make more pulp more quickly.
Europeans also had a ready supply of linen rags.
In the late Middle Ages, a new way of processing linen had been developed
using something called the flax breaker, which meant that there was a lot more linen
being made from flax and made into people's underwear.
(fabric ripping)
JONATHAN: Linen underwear was lot more comfortable than woollen underwear because it didn't scratch, and so linen became very, very popular
and became the source of rags for papermaking.
NARRATOR: By the late Middle Ages, Italian hill towns like Fabriano and Amalfi had become Europe's leading paper manufacturers
shipping tons of paper to businessmen throughout Europe. (machinery clanking)
NARRATOR: And this mass production of cheap paper was changing Europe in other profound ways.
One of the most interesting documents that I've seen, or seen photographs of,
is a poem by Petrarch, the Italian poet.
It's on paper. And it is crossed out.
He wrote out the poem and then he changed his mind and he put in a better word.
So he was able to compose, in effect on paper,
as opposed to composing it in his mind, repeating it over and over again until he got it perfect and then putting down
a fair copy on the final expensive material. This is something you wouldn't do on parchment
because it was too expensive. You'd have to scrape it off.
Paper allowed all sorts of new ways of doing things.
It seems to me that it's no accident that the art of drawing really develops in the 15th century in Italy.
JONATHAN: Paper allowed an artist to actually do a drawing and work out an idea in front of his eyes
and preserve it for later use, or to look at it and say, "I'll change this; I'll change that."
And save it and make a copy of the drawing. And we know that Michelangelo, for example,
did drawings of his drawings or did drawings of other people's drawings.
This wouldn't have been possible with parchment because it was too expensive to waste in this way.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, in Asia, the country that had given paper to the world had developed a technology that had turned book production
from a laborious job for scribes into a standardized process:
Printing. In the ninth century C.E., the time of the Tang Dynasty,
Chinese printers were printing book pages carved from a single block of wood.
The world's oldest printed book is this Chinese copy of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra
printed in the year 868 C.E. Some 400 years later, around 1300,
Asian woodblock printing had travelled the Silk Road to the West.
But by then, China had invented a more efficient way of printing.
Instead of carving a single wooden block into a book page, printers engraved pieces of clay
with individual Chinese characters, baked the clay letters to harden them,
and then arranged them in a frame to create a book page...
The earliest known use of moveable type.
And then, in the year 1440, Johannes Gutenberg, a goldsmith in the German city of Mainz,
came up with a new way of printing. Gutenberg began with a screw press,
a wooden screw that pushed a plate down on a flat surface
invented by the Romans to make wine and used in Gutenberg's time to make woodblock prints.
He made his own moveable type by punching letters out of metal
and casting them using a hand mould he'd invented himself.
He devised a system for quickly composing lines of type in trays.
And he invented a new oil-based printing ink that transferred easily to metal type.
Gutenberg's new printing process was much faster and more efficient than Asian printing techniques.
But its biggest advantage may simply have been this: The Latin alphabet.
JONATHAN: In Chinese you have many characters, and so you have to have like 6,000 individual characters
in order to print something. In Europe, where you have the Latin alphabet
with individual letters that are not connected to each other and you only have 26 of them
and you have upper case and lower case capital letters and small letters, you don't really need that many to write out a text.
NARRATOR: If ever a new technology re-wrote human history, it was Gutenberg's printing press.
Within a few years of Gutenberg's first printing run, millions of Europeans were reading the Bible
and other best-selling books translated into their own languages,
something we take for granted. But in 15th-century Europe, it was revolutionary.
Working together, paper and the printing press had achieved something never done before.
They had democratized knowledge. (speaking German)
NARRATOR: Europe's new demand for books and its new ability to mass-produce books to meet that demand
would soon have enormous consequences. In Germany, a firebrand monk named Martin Luther
wrote a list of 95 proposals for reforming what Luther denounced
as the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church.
Thanks to paper and the printing press, his ideas spread like wildfire across Germany and Switzerland.
And so began the Protestant Reformation, a spiritual revolt that ended Catholicism's
thousand-year monopoly of the European soul.
And some other best-selling books helped an Italian living in Spain realize his dream.
His name was Cristobal Colon, and he was deeply disturbed that the holy cities of Christendom
had fallen under the rule of the Ottoman Turks.
Colon drew up plans for a new Crusade to liberate Jerusalem.
To fund it, he decided to travel to Asia to trade for spices and other luxury goods
he could sell for a large profit back home.
NARRATOR: But the Ottoman Empire had blocked Europeans from the Silk Road.
Colon needed to find a new route to Asia.
His deep study of two books, "The Travels of Marco Polo"
and the ancient Greek author Ptolemy's "Geography," convinced him that he could find Asia
by sailing West across the Atlantic. And when he landed in the Americas in 1492,
Colon, known to history as Christopher Columbus, was sure he'd found it.
In fact, it wouldn't be until 1498 that the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama
rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope and sailed east to India,
discovering the true sea route to Asia.
But the new world Columbus had given Spain proved to have riches of its own.
By the middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese had established good trading relations
with China in Guangzhou and Macau.
And Spain's American colonies were sending so much silver home that there was hardly any room to store it.
Spain was sending it on to northern Europe, especially the Netherlands, as payment for trade goods.
Their pockets bursting with American silver, Europeans became addicted to two Asian luxuries.
One was porcelain, an extraordinary ceramic
made by firing a soft white clay called kaolin at very high temperatures,
well over 1,000 degrees Celsius. China had been making porcelain for export
and trading it throughout Asia and the Middle East since at least the ninth century C.E.
In the 17th century, the Dutch captured two Portuguese ships filled with porcelain
and held a giant porcelain auction. It was the beginning of Europe's 300-year obsession
with Chinese ceramics or, as they became known in Europe and America,
"fine China." It was a status symbol for the West,
and they had never seen anything like that before. But also, they certainly didn't know how it was made.
NARRATOR: Porcelain imports were indispensable to consuming another Chinese trade good craved by Europeans:
Tea. Like porcelain, tea had been a profitable Chinese export
since at least the ninth century to the Middle East but not to Europe.
The Portuguese began trading for it in the 16th century.
In 1657, a London merchant sold the first tea in Britain.
By the year 1700, tea-drinking had become a British obsession
heavily promoted by the British East India Company, which traded British textiles to China
and needed a profitable luxury good to bring back to Britain.
And as Chinese tea began moving West to Europe, Europeans began trading exotic new foods to China.
(children laughing) NARRATOR: In the 17th century, dozens of never-before seen food crops
from the Americas-- potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peanuts, pineapples, chilies, and tomatoes--
began appearing in Chinese markets. Some of these new foods offered more
than just the appeal of the exotic.
Corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes grew in harsh New World environments
like the South American Andes. Chinese farmers soon discovered these hardy crops
would survive the frequent droughts that wiped out many native crops starving large numbers of Chinese.
It's no coincidence that in the 17th century, after the introduction of drought-resistant crops,
China's population began to grow
and kept growing until China became the world's most populous nation.
And the new sea routes brought even more to China from the West.
An Italian named Matteo Ricci arrived in China in 1582
and spent the rest of his life there. Ricci was a Catholic missionary,
and his mission to China produced one of history's most enlightened meetings of minds.
Ricci learned to speak, read, and write Chinese, and formed deep friendships with Chinese scholars.
One of Matteo Ricci's closest collaborators and first converts to Catholicism
was the mathematician Xu Guangqi. AGNES: My ancestor Xu Guangqi,
who is known in Vatican history as Paul Hsu, met him around the time when he first came to China.
And in 1603, my ancestor converted to Roman Catholicism.
NARRATOR: Working together, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi translated works from
the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid and other classics of Western science and mathematics into Chinese.
They also translated Confucian writings into Latin.
Ricci wrote to his superiors in Europe, asking them to send more missionaries to China,
but only their smartest men. In China, he wrote, "We are dealing with a people both intelligent and learned."
Xu Guangqi himself was an astronomer, a highly accomplished astronomer and a mathematician.
But the introduction of Western science opened his eyes to a different way of thinking,
a different way of approaching natural phenomena.
NARRATOR: Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit, a member of the Society of Jesus, a new Catholic order founded on the principles
of the European Renaissance. Jesuit priests were trained in science and mathematics
as well as in theology. As missionaries, they respected other cultures
and worked to integrate Christianity with non-Christian beliefs.
From the 16th until the 19th century, nearly a thousand Jesuits worked in China
teaching everything from engineering to mathematics to geography and sending back translated classics
of Chinese learning to Europe, giving Europe its first in-depth knowledge
of Chinese civilization and China its first in-depth knowledge of the West.
Chinese and Europeans became more and more fascinated with each other's civilizations.
King Louis XIV of France sent French Jesuits to the mission in China.
And Chinese emperors appointed Jesuits to important government positions.
For more than 100 years, Jesuit astronomers directed the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
One of them, the German Johann Adam Schall von Bell, helped create a new Chinese calendar
that predicted solar and lunar eclipses with more accuracy.
He also introduced his Chinese colleagues to a new European invention, the telescope.
The Belgian priest Ferdinand Verbiest built an aqueduct, made European-style cannons for the army,
and built a steam-powered vehicle for the emperor considered by some to be the world's earliest automobile.
In 1674, Verbiest presented the emperor with a new map of the world.
The collaborative product of European and Chinese knowledge, it was more than just a map.
It was an expression of a new worldview. A worldview based on science, exploration,
and confidence in the human ability to discover, to invent, and to create a better world.
A worldview that saw the world as one. Arguably the most famous scholar
of that age is Voltaire. And in his essay "Sur le Moeurs"
which was first published in 1756,
he argued that China was the paragon
of Enlighted monarchy ruled by intellectuals.
It challenges the fundamental notion that the Christian European world
was the beginning and the centre of civilization.
China, in Voltaire's mind, was a civilization ruled by reason
and ruled by men promoted through education...
Through virtue, and through their scholarly accomplishments,
their merits; not by hereditary rights.
(gunfire, faint shouting) NARRATOR: In Voltaire's time, Europeans were fighting their hereditary kings
for the right to rule themselves. By 1800, political revolutions in Britain, America, and France
had ended centuries of absolute monarchy.
New technologies like the mechanical loom and the steam engine and the rise of industrial capitalism
were connecting the far corners of the world. And an ancient Chinese invention
that had spread westward centuries earlier was playing a critical role. (men shouting faintly, gunfire)
NARRATOR: Gunpowder had made modern warfare possible. (cannon booms)
(gunshot)
NARRATOR: And in mineral-rich areas like France's Vosges Mountains, it was helping in a different way
to create the modern world. At the beginning of the 17th century,
these mountains were honeycombed with mines and crowded with miners from all over Europe
chasing rumours of riches underground.
(Francis speaking French)
(water dripping)
NARRATOR: In the accounting books of the Thillot Mine, archaeologists discovered an entry from the year 1617
recording the purchase of gunpowder to do something revolutionary--
blast a mine tunnel from the living rock. (water dripping)
(speaking French)
NARRATOR: By the beginning of the 19th century, gunpowder was helping European mining evolve
from laborious hand digging to a modern enterprise, supplying Europe's growing industrial economy.
And across the Atlantic, it was about to help a new nation unlock its vast economic potential.
On July 4, 1817, the United States of America's 41st birthday,
crews in New York State began digging the Erie Canal, a nearly 600-kilometre shipping channel
designed to connect the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean
so towns and farms on America's frontier could ship and sell their products worldwide.
Most of the canal route lay in flat country, and the canal builders had little trouble digging through soft soil.
But 50 kilometres from Lake Erie, the landscape suddenly changed.
By 1824, they got here, to Lockport. And what they encountered was a solid rock ledge
of a very hard rock called Lockport Dolomite. 10 or 12 miles from here,
there was more hard rock excavation than anywhere else in the canal system put together.
This is the same rock that forms the lip of Niagara Falls.
It's as if they were climbing the face of Niagara Falls in order to get canal boats past here
and onto Lake Erie and the upper Great Lakes. NARRATOR: Lifting canal boats from Lockport
to the level of Lake Erie meant raising them 15 metres high.
The only way to do that was by building a series of locks.
But cutting those locks though dolomite with picks and shovels would have been next to impossible.
You can chip away with chisels and picks, but it would've taken years and years and years to whittle down, to hew your way down
through this rock. Without explosives, they weren't going any further. They weren't gonna reach
their ultimate goal of Lake Erie; they weren't gonna be able to open the Great Lakes to maritime commerce.
They needed some way to move massive quantities of rock.
NARRATOR: Using gunpowder instead of pick and shovel, the canal builders excavated the lock chambers in two years.
But gunpowder's work was just beginning.
As soon as the canal diggers reached the height of Lake Erie, they had to lower the channel below it
so the lake would flow into the canal and keep it full of water.
Behind me you're looking at the final challenge in Erie Canal construction. It's not terribly exciting looking.
It's not like the locks. But this, cutting this slot, the Deep Cut through four miles of rock
was the last major challenge before the canal builders could get to Lake Erie and the one that took them more than a year to accomplish.
The Deep Cut required them to cut a vertical slot through rock, something they hadn't encountered
anywhere else on the entire canal construction project. They probably used more gunpowder, more explosives in these four or five miles
than they used in the rest of the canal put together. (explosion) DUNCAN: Rock went all over the place.
There are lots of stories about anything from a pebble to a boulder raining down on the construction camp,
this hail of rock every time they set off a charge. And the blasting went on day and night.
(explosion) DUNCAN: Construction workers were killed in blasting. There were residents of the city who were killed,
There are newspaper accounts of women being killed by falling rock while they were simply minding their business
walking from one house to another. NARRATOR: By the end of 1825,
the Deep Cut was finished and the Erie Canal was officially open for business.
Before roads and railroads had penetrated the North American wilderness, the Erie Canal made possible
the westward economic expansion of the young United States.
And the digging of the Erie Canal had another enormous consequence.
It would play a key role in transforming the American seaport at its eastern end into the modern world's greatest city.
The Erie Canal vaulted New York City from being one of several Atlantic ports
competing with Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston to the head of the pack.
New York became a world leader in maritime commerce, and all the other business activities
that go along with maritime commerce, things like insurance and financing and the grain exchange,
that all happened in New York because the Erie Canal brought the produce of the interior of a continent
to the Atlantic in New York harbour. NARRATOR: By the 20th century,
New York had become the prototype of the megacity.
Spawned and sustained by global trade, the megacity transcends its national roots
and becomes a world city, encompassing human diversity.
New York's evolution was the ultimate expression of forces that have been at work for thousands of years,
set in motion and sustained by the East-West commerce of the Silk Road...
A path through history that didn't just link human beings together but shaped their fates.
AGNES: The Silk Road was like a ray of light.
It opened our eyes, East and West, to intangible ideas,
to beautiful things, to beautiful thoughts.
NARRATOR: Today, the ancient tale of the Silk Road seems like the story of an exotic past.
But in fact, it's just as much a story of the future.
Two or three times a week, a train departs from the Chinese city of Yiwu.
It's loaded with Chinese- manufactured consumer goods, and its route takes it across six countries
in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. (train whistle blows)
NARRATOR: It takes 18 to 20 days to reach one of several destinations in Western Europe,
over distances of some 12,000 to 13,000 kilometres.
Loaded up with European manufactured goods, it returns to China.
The Yiwu Railway is pioneering the return of the Silk Road.
On 14 May 2017, China hosted a conference in Beijing to promote its "One Belt, One Road" initiative.
Attending were delegates from around the world, including the heads of the International Monetary Fund,
the World Bank, and the United Nations and nearly 30 heads of state.
Known as OBOR, One Belt, One Road plans to build a $1 trillion U.S. dollar transport network
that will connect some 60 countries, 2/3 of the world's population, and 1/3 of the world's GDP.
Inspired by the Old Silk Road, it will re-establish the ancient trade routes overland and by sea.
And it will also create a New Silk Road in space.
On August 1, 2017, China's Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft
released the nano-satellite SilkRoad-1 01 CubeSat into orbit.
SilkRoad-1 is a pathfinder for a constellation of around 30 satellites
operating across a variety of wavelengths. (rocket roaring)
NARRATOR: These satellites will help build an efficient and reliable satellite navigation system
that will provide mapping and navigation services and remote sensing technology to all the cities of Western China
and to other countries along the new Silk Road. (speaking foreign language)
(rocket roars) (speaking foreign language)
(Yang Liwei speaking foreign language)
(Zhou Jianping speaking foreign language)
NARRATOR: For thousands of years, the movement of goods, people, and inventions
across Eurasia has played a critical role in shaping human destiny.
And it may soon be helping to shape humanity's future.