Understanding Literary Source of Ancient India

 Understanding Literary Source Of Ancient India

In 1148 CE, rary and scholarly ambitions, began writing a bKalhana, a man with liteook. Kalhana belonged to a well-connected Brahmana family of Kashmir. His father Chanpaka was at one time closely associated with the royal court, but by the time Kalhana was born, the family had fallen out of favour. Kalhana worked hard for two years, recording local traditions and examining manuscripts, chronicles, inscriptions, coins, and monuments. He drew on his family members’ political experience and his personal observation of events that were unfolding in his own lifetime. The book was completed in 1150 CE and was titled Rajatarangini (River of Kings). Consisting of eight cantos, each called a taranga (wave), it gave a connected account of the kings of Kashmir from the early ones of legend to the historical rulers of the 12th century.

 

    Kalhana is often described as India’s first historian. He asserts in the Rajatarangini that a person who recounts the events of the past must do so like a judge, without bias or prejudice. However, his book does not always distinguish between fact and legend, and often explains events by citing fate. It is not surprising that there are differences in perspective between a 12th century historian such as Kalhana and historians of more recent times. Moreover, Kalhana considered himself primarily a gifted and skilful poet, one who could make pictures of the past come vividly alive. He described the natural beauty of Kashmir with pride and feeling, wove lively character sketches, and gave dramatic descriptions of political events. 

   

    The past, like the present, is complex and can be looked at from many perspectives. There can never be a single, final, perfect history. There can never be a complete or exact picture of what happened in the past; the task of the historian is to bring us as close as possible to such a picture. Historical analysis involves carefully examining the available sources of information, searching for fresh evidence, and devising creative, innovative ways of interpreting historical data. It involves asking new questions and searching for new answers to old ones. Debate and disagreement are an important part of the growth of all forms of knowledge, and history is no exception.

 

    All historical interpretations are ultimately based on evidence derived from the sources of history, conventionally divided into two categories—literary and archaeological. From a historian’s point of view, literary sources include all texts—long or short, written or oral; archaeological sources include all tangible, material remains. But these distinctions are not absolute. All remains of the past, including literary manuscripts, are actually material in nature. And certain kindsof archaeological sources which have writing on them—inscriptions, coins, and inscribed images—can be considered both material objects and texts.

    

     The ways in which historians have used different kinds of sources to construct the history of ancient and early medieval India will become clear as you read this book. This chapter gives a broad overview of the major sources, highlighting their general features, and the important issues that have to be kept in mind while using them as windows to the past.

 

 Reading Ancient Texts from a Historical Point of View 

All literary works are connected to the historical contexts in which they are produced and in which they circulate. However, an ancient text does not necessarily offer a simple or direct reflection of the society of its time. It constitutes a complex representation of that society and a refracted image of the past. Information has to be teased out with care, skill, and ingenuity to make historical inferences. Many early religious texts were not primarily meant to be read but to be recited, heard, and performed. They were passed on orally from one generation to the next, even after they were available in the form of written manuscripts. 

  A text can be read in many different ways from a historical point of view, but certain important issues have to be addressed while doing so. Foremost among these are its age and authorship. Ancient texts are much older than their surviving manuscripts, and have had a life of their own. They have grown and changed over time and this process of growth and change—the period of composition—could in some cases have lasted for hundreds of years before they  were compiled or given a more or less final shape. A text can be used as a source  of historical information for the period during which it was composed, but if the  composition stretched over a long period of time, it becomes essential to identify  its different chronological layers and the various additions or interpolations  made over time. This is not easy and requires a very careful analysis of  language, style, and content. Certain texts have been analysed in this manner,  resulting in the publication of critical editions accompanied by a critical  apparatus. A critical edition is prepared after a careful study of different  manuscripts of a text and identifies its original core. The critical apparatus  directs attention to variations across manuscripts and different commentarial  interpretations.  Many early texts were the work of not one, but many authors. Even if many of  these authors must remain anonymous, it is important to identify their  background and the perspectives and biases they reflect, such as those of class,  religion, and gender. Other questions that can be asked about these texts include:  Where were they composed and in which geographical area did they circulate?  Who transmitted them and how did they go about doing so? Who was their  target audience? What was the place of these texts within prevailing social and  political power structures and cultural traditions?  Analyzing a text from the historical point of view does not mean mechanically  plucking out self-evident ‘facts’. The information a text provides has to be  carefully understood within the framework of the particular genre or type of  literature it represents. In the case of poetry or drama, the analysis requires  sensitivity to the literary conventions of the time and the writer’s style and  imagination. In other cases, a text may represent an ideal, not an actual situationimagination. In other cases, a text may represent an ideal, not an actual situation  and it cannot be read as a description of what was actually happening at the time.  Ancient texts often contain myths, and although myths can tell us indirectly  about history, the two should not be confused with each other.

 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF LITERARY SOURCES: LANGUAGE, GENRE, AND CONTENT

 

Ancient and early medieval Indian texts can be divided into categories on the basis of language, genre, content, age, and the tradition or class of literature to which they belonged. Linguists and philologists (scholars who study old  languages) have divided the languages of the world into different families.  Languages belonging to the same family have certain structural similarities and  share a significant number of similar, related words (or cognates). For instance,  Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Sindhi, Oriya, Nepali, and  Kashmiri belong to the Indo-European family. So do Persian, Greek, Latin,  German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Armenian, and many other languages of Europe and Asia. Languages of the Dravidian family—Tamil, Malayalam,  Telugu, Kannada, and Tulu— are today largely spoken in South India.  Exceptions include Brahui, which is spoken in the Baluchistan area of Pakistan,  Gondi in central India and Malto in the Rajmahal hills of eastern India. Santali,  Khasi, Mundari, and some other languages of eastern India belong to the Austro-  Asiatic family. Certain languages of the North-East, such as Manipuri, Bodo,  Garo, and Lushai belong to the Tibeto-Burmese family. Andamanese, one of thelanguages spoken in the Andaman Islands, is not apparently related to any of the  known language families.  The oldest surviving texts in the Indian subcontinent—the Vedas—are in  Sanskrit. Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European  family of languages, as do ancient Pali and Prakrit. There were various dialects  of Prakrit—e.g., Maharashtri, Shauraseni, and Magadhi. Apabhramsha is a  term used for the further development of Prakrit up to the end of the 1st  millennium CE. Among the Dravidian languages, Tamil has the oldest literature,  followed by Kannada. Many of the other Indian regional languages and dialects  we are familiar with today took shape between c. 1000 and 1500. The various  languages were not closed, separate worlds, but overlapping and interacting  ones.      Languages have histories and change with the times. The pre-classical  Sanskrit of the Rig Veda is different from the classical Sanskrit of Kalidasa’s  poetry. The term ‘classical Sanskrit’ refers to the language whose rules werecodified by the 5th/4th century BCE grammarian Panini in his Ashtadhyayi.  Another important Sanskrit grammar is Patanjali’s Mahabhashya (2nd century  BCE). The oldest surviving Prakrit grammar is Vararuchi’s Prakritaprakasha,  whose date is debated. The ancient Tamil of the Sangam poems is different from  modern Tamil. The Tolkappiyam is the oldest surviving Tamil grammar; parts of  it go back to the early centuries CE. Such grammatical texts tell us about the  structure of ancient languages and they also contain incidental historical  references to their time.  Ancient Indian texts are sometimes divided into religious and non-religious  (or ‘secular’) texts. Although this is a handy distinction, there are a few things  worth keeping in mind. The English word ‘religion’ attaches great importance to  belief, and suggests fixed, rigid, mutually exclusive boundaries and distinct  religious identities. No ancient Indian word has such a meaning. The Sanskrit  dharma or the Pali dhamma, for instance, had a broader reference to a path that  people should follow or an exemplary way of life. They included many different  kinds of things—codes of conduct, social practices, forms and objects of  worship, ritual activity, traditions, and philosophical ideas. Ancient societies did  not make the kind of distinction between the religious and the secular domains  with which we are familiar in modern times. Therefore, we should not be  surprised to find an interweaving of what appear to be religious and non-  religious themes and content in ancient texts.  Some of the major literary sources for the history of ancient and early  medieval India are discussed in the following sections. As the volume of texts is  considerable, these should only be considered a representative sample. The idea  is to give a brief introduction to their range, with a special focus on texts  frequently used and cited by historians. Most of these works were not historical  texts, i.e., they were not written with the conscious aim of maintaining an  account of what happened in the past. But, as we shall see in the course of this  book, texts of any kind can be used as sources of history.

 

THE VEDAS   

 

 In the Hindu tradition, the Vedas have the status of shruti (literally, ‘that which  has been heard’). They are thought to embody an eternal, self-existent truth  realized by the rishis (seers) in a state of meditation or revealed to them by thegods. The category of smriti (literally, ‘remembered’) texts includes the  Vedanga, Puranas, epics, Dharmashastra, and Nitishastra.  The word Veda comes from the root vid (literally, ‘to know’) and means  ‘knowledge’. There are four Vedas—Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva. The Rig  Veda contains the world’s oldest surviving poetry, some of it of extraordinary  beauty and philosophical depth. Each Veda has four parts, the last three of which  sometimes blend into each other—the Samhita, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and  Upanishad.  The Rig Veda Samhita is a collection of 1,028 hymns (suktas) arranged in 10  books (Mandalas). The Sama Veda consists of 1,810 verses, mostly borrowed  from the Rig Veda, arranged according to the needs of musical notation. The  original melodies are, however, lost. The Yajur Veda deals with the details of the  performance of rituals. The Atharva Veda is the latest Veda and contains hymns  (some from the Rig Veda), but also spells and charms which reflect aspects of  popular beliefs and practices. The Brahmanas (this term should not be confused  with the Brahmana varna or caste) are prose explanations of the Samhita  portions and give details and explanations of sacrificial rituals and their  outcome. The Aranyakas (forest books) interpret sacrificial rituals in a symbolic  and philosophical way. There are 108 Upanishads, among which 13 are  considered the principal ones. The Upanishads contain a great variety of  philosophical ideas about sacrifice, the body, and the universe, but are most  closely associated with the concepts of atman and brahman. Within the Vedic  corpus as a whole, Books 2–7 (known as the family books) of the Rig Veda  Samhita are considered the oldest; the later portions of this Samhita, along with  all the other Vedic texts, comprise later Vedic literature.  There are several recensions (shakhas) of the Vedas, associated with different  schools (charanas) of Vedic study and interpretation. (The terms shakha and  charana are often used interchangeably.) The Shakala shakha is the only  surviving recension of the Rig Veda. The texts of the Yajur Veda are divided into  those of the Shukla (White) school and Krishna (Black) school. The recensions  of the Shukla (also known as Vajasaneya) Yajur Veda are the Madhyandina and  Kanva. The Black school is represented by the Kathaka, Kapishthala,  Maitrayani, and Taittiriya recensions. The main difference between the texts of  the two schools is that the Samhitas of the White school contain only themantras (prayers and sacrificial formulae), while in the texts of the Black school  the mantras are accompanied by a commentary describing and discussing  various aspects of the sacrificial rituals. The Kauthuma, Ranayaniya, and  Jaiminiya (or Talavakara) are recensions of the Sama Veda, and the Shaunaka  and Paippalada of the Atharva Veda. References in inscriptions mention other  recensions of the Vedas that once existed but are now lost.  Vedic texts comprise a religious literature, and references to possible  historical events are few. For example, Book 7 of the Rig Veda Samhita refers to  a battle of 10 kings, in which Sudas defeated a number of adversaries who had  confederated against him. Historians have tried to reconstruct various aspects of  the culture represented in the Vedas, but it is not easy to interpret this vast and  complex literature.  A major problem in using the Vedas as a source of history is the problem of  dating the Rig Veda. The dates that have been suggested for the composition of  this text range from c. 6000 BCE to 1000 BCE. Many historians take c. 1500–1000  BCE as the period of composition of early Vedic literature and c. 1000–500 BCE  as that of later Vedic texts. This chronology is essentially based on the tentative  dates suggested by Max Müller in the 19th century.  Vedic literature forms an important part of the Brahmanical tradition—texts  preserved and transmitted by a section of Brahmana males. It reflects their  religious beliefs, practices, and points of view. As a source of history, these texts  are used for information about life in parts of north-western and northern India  during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE. But apart from the question of dates, as we  shall see later on, there are several problems in co-relating the evidence from the  Vedas with archaeology.  A number of supplementary texts known as Vedanga (literally, ‘limbs of a  Veda’) aimed at helping the proper recitation, use, and understanding of the  Vedas. These include works on phonetics (shiksha), metre (chhanda), grammar  (vyakarana), etymology (nirukta), ritual (kalpa), and astronomy (jyotisha). The  broad period of composition of Vedanga literature is c. 600–200 BCE. Yaska’s  Nirukta, a work on the etymology of words in the Rig Veda, belongs to the 6th  century BCE.    

 

THE TWO SANSKRIT EPICS: THE RAMAYANA AND MAHABHARATA

 

The two Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana, fall within the   category of smriti as well as itihasa (traditional history), although the Ramayana   is sometimes classified as kavya (poetry). Similarities in language and style   suggest that they emerged from a common cultural milieu. The Mahabharata   refers to Valmiki and the Ramayana, and outlines the Rama story in a section   called the Ramopakhyana. The Ramayana in turn mentions the Kurus,   Hastinapura, and Janamejaya, although it does not mention the Mahabharata   war. The two epics were clearly aware of each other, at least in their later stages   of development. The composition of the Mahabharata can be placed between c.   400 BCE and c. 400 CE, and the Ramayana between the 5th/4th century BCE and   the 3rd century CE. More recently, Hiltebeitel (2001: 18–20) has suggested a   shorter period of composition for the Mahabharata, from the mid-2nd century   BCE to the year zero. Nevertheless, the fact that the different stages in the   composition and development of the epics could well have spanned many   centuries, possibly even a millennium, should make it obvious why most   historians no longer use the term ‘epic age’.   The epics are magnificent texts with powerful stories that have captured the   imagination of millions of people over the centuries. To use them as historical   sources, it is necessary to identify their internal chronological layers, which is   not an easy task. According to tradition, Rama lived in the treta yuga (age) and   the Mahabharata war happened later, in the dvapara yuga. However, some   historians argue that the events and characters associated with the Mahabharata   reflect a slightly earlier period than those of the Ramayana. This is because the   setting of the Mahabharata is the Indo-Gangetic divide and the upper Ganga   valley, while in the Ramayana, the centre of political gravity had clearly shifted   eastwards, to the middle Ganga valley. The strong women characters of the   Mahabharata suggest an earlier stage of social development, when women were   less subordinated to men compared to later times. The practice of niyoga   (levirate; i.e., when a husband deputes his conjugal rights over his wife to   another man in order to produce an heir) in the Mahabharata also suggests a   social stage that is prior to that of the Ramayana, which reflects much stricter   controls over women.   The Mahabharata consists of 18 Parvas (books) and has two main recensions   —a northern and southern. The core story concerns a conflict between two setsof cousins—the Kauravas and the Pandavas—and a great war that was fought   between them at Kurukshetra. But the text also contains a huge amount of   material that has little or no connection with the main story. According to   tradition, it was composed by Vyasa, but in its present form, it is clearly not the   work of a single individual. The Mahabharata is truly an encyclopaedic work,   and it boasts of this fact. A heroic story formed the core to which many other   stories, sermons, and didactic portions containing teachings, were added over   centuries. The additions include the sermon on dharma given by Bhishma as he   lay dying on a bed of arrows, and the stirring discourse of Krishna to Arjuna on   the eve of the war, known as the Bhagavad Gita.   Whether a bitter war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas ever happened   cannot be proved or disproved. It is possible that there was a small-scale   conflict, transformed into a gigantic epic war by bards and poets. Some   historians and archaeologists have argued that this conflict may have occurred in   about 1000 BCE.   The Ramayana exists in the form of two main recensions—northern and   southern; the northern recension can be further divided into the north-eastern,   north-western, and western. The language of the northern recension is more   elaborate and polished than that of the southern one. The epic consists of seven   Kandas (books), of which the first (Bala Kanda) and last (Uttara Kanda) are later   interpolations. The basic story is about Rama, prince of Kosala; his banishment   to the forest due to the intrigues of his wicked stepmother; the abduction of his   wife Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka; Sita’s rescue; and Rama’s return to the   capital, Ayodhya, to become king. The compact vocabulary and style indicate   that the core of the text was the work of a single individual, traditionally   identified as Valmiki. Valmiki appears in the Balakanda, where he is inspired to   compose the epic, and in the Uttarakanda, where he gives refuge to Sita who has   been disowned by Rama.   Excavations at the site of Ayodhya have indicated the existence of a   settlement here from the Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW) phase,   which may go back at the earliest to c. 700 BCE. However, as with the   Mahabharata, the archaeological evidence does not tell us whether there is any   historical basis to the events or the characters of the Ramayana.The popularity and dynamism of the Rama story is indicated by the fact that   apart from the Valmiki Ramayana (which seems to be the oldest version) there   are numerous other tellings of the Rama story— a Jaina version (the   Paumachariu of Vimalasuri, in Prakrit), a Buddhist version (the Dasharatha   Jataka in Pali), a 12th century Tamil version by Kamban (the Iramavataram),   and the Ramcharitmanas (16th century) by Tulsidas, to name only a few. There   are also innumerable oral versions of the story. The Rama legend has enjoyed   great popularity in other parts of Asia as well and there are various tellings of the   story in Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia. The various tellings often have different beginnings and endings, and   characters and events are moulded in different ways (see Richman, 1992). For   instance, in the Paumachariu, Ravana is presented as a tragic hero who is killed   by Lakshmana, not by Rama (who embodies all the Jaina virtues, including non-   violence). Apart from written and oral versions of the story, the Ramayana has   also been the subject of art and performance—sculpture, painting, plays, dance   dramas, and television serials.   The epics can be read in many different ways from the historical point of   view. While most scholars have focused on debating the historicity of their   events, some have tried to describe their many different cultural layers. Another   approach is to read such texts as a response to a specific kind of historical   context. For instance, James L. Fitzgerald (in Mittal and Thursby, 2005: 54) has   argued that the Mahabharata was a Brahmanical response to certain specific   historical developments: the increasing popularity of religious traditions such asBuddhism and Jainism, and the rise of dynasties such as the Nandas and   Mauryas, who extended support to them, were perceived by a section of the   Brahmanas as threatening the Brahmanical order. The Mahabharata was their   response to this perceived crisis.

 

THE PURANAS

 

The word ‘Purana’ means ‘old’. According to tradition, the Puranas were  composed by Vyasa, but it is clear that in the form in which they have come  down to us, they were not the work of one person nor of one age. There are 18  Mahapuranas (great Puranas), and many more Upapuranas (secondary Puranas).  The standard list of the 18 Mahapuranas includes the Vishnu, Narada,  Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma, Varaha, Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Shiva, Skanda,  Agni, Brahmanda, Brahmavaivarta, Markandeya, Bhavishya, Vamana, and  Brahma. The origins of the Puranas may have overlapped to some extent with  the Vedas, but their composition stretched forward into the 4th–5th centuries CE,  and in some cases, even later.  The Puranas are supposed to have five characteristics (pancha-lakshanas),  i.e., they are supposed to discuss five topics—the creation of the world (sarga);  re-creation (pratisarga); the periods of the various Manus (manvantaras); the  genealogies of gods and rishis (vamsha); and an account of royal dynasties  (vamshanucharita), including the Suryavamshi and Chandravamshi kings,  whose origin is traced to the sun and the moon. Actually, not all Puranas deal  with all these five topics, and most of them deal with much more.  The conception of time in the Puranas is mind-boggling. There are four ages  or yugas—krita, treta, dvapara, and kali, all consisting of thousands and  thousands of years. These four yugas make up a mahayuga, and 1,000  mahayugas constitute a kalpa. Every kalpa is divided into 14 manvantaras, each  presided over by a Manu. One yuga follows the other, and the periodic  destruction of the world is followed by its re-creation. This cycle of time is  connected with the cyclical decline and revival of dharma.  The earliest parts of the Puranic genealogies are either entirely or partly  mythical. The later genealogies of kings of the kali age (which, according to  tradition, began the day Krishna died, 20 years after the Mahabharata war) have  historical material. The account is given in the future tense in the form of aprophecy, because Vyasa is supposed to have lived at the end of the dvapara  yuga and the beginning of the kali yuga, before the events he is supposed to be  describing. The Bhavishya Purana is mentioned in some Puranas as the original  authority for the genealogies, but the present versions of this text have  incomplete material on the subject.  Although their details do not always match, the Puranas—especially the Vayu,  Brahmanda, Brahma, Harivamsha, Matsya, and Vishnu—do provide useful  information on ancient political history. They refer to historical dynasties such as  the Haryankas, Shaishunagas, Nandas, Mauryas, Shungas, Kanvas, and Andhras  (Satavahanas). They also mention certain kings, with names ending in the suffix  ‘naga’, who ruled in northern and central India in the early centuries CE, about  whom very little else is known. The dynastic lists end with the Guptas (4th–6th  centuries), indicating that most of the Puranas were compiled at about this time.  However, some are later—e.g., the Bhagavata Purana belongs to the 10th and  the Skanda Purana to the 14th century, with additions made up to the 16th  century.  The Puranas have accounts of mountains, rivers, and places, which are useful  for the study of historical geography. They also reflect the emergence of  religious cults based on devotion, especially towards the gods Vishnu and Shiva  and the goddess Shakti. This devotion was expressed through the worship of  images of deities in temples, pilgrimage (tirtha), and vows (vrata). Some of the  Puranic myths such as the stories of encounters and interactions between demons  (rakshasas, asuras), gods (devas), and sages (rishis) are interpreted by historians  as allegorical representations of interactions among people belonging to different  cultures. The Puranas had a very important function in the Brahmanical tradition  as vehicles of Brahmanical social and religious values. At the same time, they  also reflect the interaction of Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical cultural  traditions and the emergence and development of Hindu religious practices.   

 

THE DHARMASHASTRA

 

 The Sanskrit word dharma (from the root dhri, meaning ‘to maintain, support, or  sustain’) is very rich in meaning and difficult to translate. The concept of  dharma is based on the idea that the universe is governed by a certain naturallaw and that the moral laws guiding people’s lives should be in consonance with  that natural law.  Dharma refers to the proper, ideal conduct of a person living in society, a  course of action which leads to the fulfilment of the goals of human life. These  goals, known as purusharthas, are dharma (righteous conduct), artha (material  well-being), kama (sensual pleasure), and moksha (deliverance from the cycle of  rebirth). In this scheme of things, material gain and sensual pleasure are  considered desirable goals, if pursued in accordance with dharma. The concept  of dharma is closely tied up with the idea of samsara—the cycle of birth, death,  and rebirth. The fruits of dharma include the acquisition of spiritual merit  (punya), and its impact is supposed to be felt not only in this life but in future  lives as well. The obligations of dharma are considered as applicable to and  binding on everybody. Therefore, dharma also means duty.  A special group of Sanskrit texts dealing specifically with dharma are  collectively known as the Dharmashastra. These texts can be subdivided into  three groups. The first two are the Dharmasutras (composed during c. 600–300  BCE) and the Smritis (c. 200 BCE–900 CE). The third includes brief and elaborate  commentaries (Tikas and Bhashyas, respectively), collections with comments  and conclusions (Nibandhas), and compendia of views from different texts  (Sangrahas), all composed between the 9th and the 19th centuries. As there is  little variation in language or style within a particular group of Dharmashastra  texts, it is not always easy to assign absolute dates to individual works.  The Dharmasutras are part of Vedanga literature as well as the Dharmashastra  corpus. Vedanga literature includes the Kalpasutras (aphorisms on ritual), which  are divided into Shrautasutras, Grihyasutras, and Dharmasutras. Sutra (literally,  ‘thread’) refers to a style in which ideas are expressed in very short, condensed  statements. The Shrautasutras deal with Vedic sacrifices that required the use of  at least three fires. The Grihyasutras deal with the simpler domestic sacrifices  involving the use of only one fire. The rituals they discuss include daily  sacrifices to be performed by a householder, mainly involving oblations of ghee  or offerings of flowers and fruits. They also describe the samskaras (literally,  ‘preparation’, ‘arrangement’)—rituals marking important life stages, such as  upanayana (initiation), vivaha (marriage), and antyeshti (funerary rites). The  Dharmasutras deal with dharma.Dharmashastra recognizes three sources of dharma—shruti (i.e., the Vedas),  smriti (i.e., the Smriti texts), and sadachara or shishtachara (good custom or the  practices of the learned, cultured people). As a matter of fact, the Samhitas of the  Vedas do not contain direct discussion of rules of conduct, so the second and  third sources of dharma are very important. A person’s dharma depends on  gender, age, marital status, varna, and ashrama. The four varnas are—  Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The first three of these are referred  to in the Brahmanical tradition as dvija (literally, ‘twice-born’) as they alone  have the right to the sacred-thread ceremony, which is considered similar to a  second birth. The ashrama system went through several stages of development  and ultimately divided the life of a dvija male into four stages—brahmacharya  (celibate studenthood), grihastha (the householder stage), vanaprastha (partial  renunciation), and sannyasa (complete renunciation). The fourth ashrama is not  obligatory. The ashramas represent an ideal scheme and it should not be  imagined that people in ancient India necessarily followed it in real life. Further,  it was not supposed to apply, even as an ideal, to women or Shudras.  Apart from norms of social behaviour, Dharmashastra deals with a number of  other issues including personal, civil, and criminal law. However, the ‘laws’ of  these ‘law books’ are not like the provisions of the Indian civil or penal codes.  We do not know to what extent their recommendations were actually used or  applied in early times. These texts are normative and prescriptive—they talk  about the way things should be, from the point of view of a section of Brahmana  males who were the ‘dharma experts’ and also the implied subject for many of  the rules.  Although the Dharmashastra texts do not directly describe the society of their  time, certain inferences about social practices can be made on their basis.  Contradictions within or across texts may indicate different opinions among  experts, differences in customary practices in different areas, or changes in  social norms over time. The Brahmanical tradition had some amount of in-built  elasticity in order to come to terms with social reality.   

 

BUDDHIST LITERATURE

 

  Early Buddhist literature is generally divided into canonical and non-canonical  texts. Canonical texts are the books which lay down the basic tenets and  principles of a religion or sect. The various Buddhist schools classify their  canonical literature in different ways, some into 9 or 12 Angas, others into 3  Pitakas.  There are Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan versions of the Tipitaka (The Three  Baskets/ Collections). The Pali Tipitaka of the Theravada school is the oldest of  them all. Pali was a literary language which developed out of a mixture of  dialects, particularly those spoken in the Magadha area of eastern India. The  Tipitaka consists of three books—the Sutta, Vinaya, and Abhidhamma. In the  Buddhist context, sutta (from the Sanskrit sutra) refers to texts that are supposed  to contain what the Buddha himself said. The Sutta Pitaka contains the Buddha’s  discourses on various doctrinal issues in dialogue form. With the exception of a  few suttas, the authority of this work was accepted by all Buddhist schools. The  Vinaya Pitaka has rules for monks and nuns of the sangha (monastic order). It  includes the Patimokkha—a list of transgressions against monastic discipline  and atonements for these. The Abhidhamma Pitaka is a later work, and contains  a thorough study and systemization of the teachings of the Sutta Pitaka through  lists, summaries, and questions and answers.  The three Pitakas are divided into books known as the Nikayas (analogous but  not identical to the Agamas of the Buddhist Sanskrit tradition). For instance, the  Sutta Pitaka consists of five Nikayas—the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta,  Anguttara, and Khuddaka Nikayas. The Jatakas—stories of the previous births  of the Buddha—are one of the 15 books of the Khuddaka Nikaya, and their  composition can be placed between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE.  The Khuddaka Nikaya also contains the Dhammapada (a collection of verses  dealing mainly with ethical sayings), and the Theragatha and Therigatha (songs  of Buddhist monks and nuns). The Therigatha, which describes women’sexperience of renunciation, is especially important because it is one of the very  few surviving ancient Indian texts composed by or attributed to women.  According to Buddhist tradition, the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas were recited at  the first council of monks at Rajagriha immediately after the Buddha’s death,  and 100 years later at the second council at Vaishali. But their composition must  have extended over several centuries, up to the time of the third council  convened in the 3rd century BCE during the reign of Ashoka. The composition of  the basic core of the Pali Tipitaka can therefore be placed between the 5th and  3rd centuries BCE. The canon is supposed to have been written down in the first  century BCE in Sri Lanka under the patronage of a king named Vattagamani, by  which time it must have undergone further modifications.  Non-canonical Buddhist literature in Pali includes the Milindapanha (1st  century BCE–1st century CE) which consists of a dialogue on various  philosophical issues between king Milinda—no doubt the Indo-Greek Menander  —and the monk Nagasena. The Nettigandha or Nettipakarana (The Book of  Guidance) belongs to the same period and gives a connected account of the  teaching of the Buddha. Commentaries on the Tipitaka include a 5th century  work by Buddhaghosha. The first connected life story of the Buddha occurs in  the Nidanakatha (1st century). The Pali or Sri Lankan chronicles—the  Dipavamsa (4th–5th centuries) and the Mahavamsa (5th century)—contain a  historical-cum-mythical account of the Buddha’s life, the Buddhist councils, the  Maurya emperor Ashoka, the kings of Sri Lanka, and the arrival of Buddhism on  that island.  Apart from texts in Pali, there are several Buddhist works in Sanskrit, and in a  mixture of Prakrit and Sanskrit that is often referred to as Buddhist Sanskrit or  Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit. The trend towards the use of Sanskrit intensified in the  Mahayana schools, but some non-Mahayana texts were also composed in  Sanskrit or mixed Prakrit-Sanskrit. For instance, the canon of the Sarvastivada  school is in Sanskrit. The Mahavastu, which has some Mahayana elements,  gives a hagiography (sacred biography) of the Buddha and describes the  emergence of the monastic order in mixed Sanskrit–Prakrit. The Lalitavistara  (1st–2nd centuries), a hagiography of the Buddha associated with the  Sarvastivada school but strongly tinged with Mahayana elements, is in Sanskrit  and mixed Prakrit-Sanskrit. Sanskrit Buddhist texts include Ashvaghosha’s Buddhacharita (1st/2nd  century) and the Avadana texts. The latter contain stories of noteworthy deeds  with a moral; they include the Avadanashataka (2nd century) and the  Divyavadana (4th century) which have stories connected with the Buddha and  the Maurya emperor Ashoka. The 1st century Ashtasahasrika-prajnaparamita  and Saddharma-pundarika offer accounts of the various Buddhas, bodhisattvas  (future Buddhas), and Mahayana doctrines. Later works of Mahayana thinkers  such as Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Asanga, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, and Dignaga  are all in Sanskrit.  Buddhist texts are important sources for the history of Buddhism, its  doctrines, monastic order, and royal patrons such as Ashoka, revealing many  other facets of the polity, society, and economy of their times as well. They offer  a non-Brahmanical window into ancient India; however, the Brahmanical  perspective is replaced by a Buddhist one.   

 

JAINA LITERATURE

 

  The sacred books of the Jainas are collectively known as the Siddhanta or  Agama. The language of the earliest texts is an eastern dialect of Prakrit known  as Ardha-Magadhi. The Jaina monastic order came to be divided into the  Shvetambara and Digambara schools, perhaps in about the 3rd century ce. The  Shvetambara canon includes the 12 Angas, 12 Uvamgas (Upangas), 10 Painnas  (Prakirnas), 6 Cheya Suttas (Cheda Sutras), 4 Mula Suttas (Mula Sutras), and a  number of individual texts such as the Nandi Sutta (Nandi Sutra) and Anugodara  (Anuyogadvara). There is some overlap in the content of the canonical literature  of the two schools. For instance, the Digambaras accept and give prime  importance to the Angas, and some of the texts they club together as the  Angabahyas have corresponding Shvetambara texts.  According to Shvetambara tradition, the Angas were compiled at a council  held at Pataliputra. The compilation of the entire canon is supposed to have  taken place in the 5th or 6th century at a council held in Valabhi in Gujarat,  presided over by Devarddhi Kshamashramana. Some of the material in the canon  may go back to the 5th or 4th century BCE, but changes and additions continued  to be made till the 5th–6th centuries CE. In order to use such texts as historical  sources, a clearer identification of their internal chronology is required.The non-canonical Jaina works are partly in Prakrit dialects, especially  Maharashtri, and partly in Sanskrit, which started being used in the early  centuries CE. Commentaries on the canonical works include the Nijjuttis  (Niryuktis), Bhashyas, and Churnis in Maharashtri and Prakrit; the early  medieval Tikas, Vrittis, and Avachurnis are in Sanskrit. The genealogical lists in  the Jaina Pattavalis and the Theravalis contain very precise chronological details  about the Jaina saints, but they sometimes contradict each other.  The Jaina Puranas (the Shvetambaras call them Charitas) are hagiographies of  the Jaina saints known as tirthankaras (literally ‘ford makers’), but they contain  other material as well. The Adi Purana (9th century) narrates the life of the first  tirthankara Rishabha, also known as Adinatha. The 8th century Harivamsha  Purana gives a Jaina version of the stories of the Kauravas, Pandavas, Krishna,  Balarama, and others. The Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana by Jinasena and  Gunabhadra (9th century) has life stories of various Jaina saints, kings, and  heroes. It also has sections on topics such as life-cycle rituals, the interpretation  of dreams, town planning, the duties of a warrior, and how a king should rule.  The Parishishtaparvan (12th century) by Hemachandra gives a history of the  earliest Jaina teachers and also mentions certain details of political history. A  number of Prabandhas (12th century onwards) from Gujarat offer semi-historical  accounts of saints and historical characters. Jaina texts also include hymn  literature and lyrical poetry. The vast Jaina didactic story (katha) literature in  Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhramsha can offer historians clues on the everyday  life of their time. The Jaina texts in the Kannada language are discussed further  on in this chapter.   

 

SANGAM LITERATURE AND LATER TAMIL WORKS

 

  The earliest literature of South India is represented by a group of texts in old  Tamil, often collectively referred to as Sangam literature. A tradition recorded in  post-7th century texts speaks of three Sangams or literary gatherings in ancient  times. The first is supposed to have been held in Madurai for 4,440 years, the  second at Kapatapuram for 3,700 years, and the third in Madurai for 1,850 years.  Although the details of this legend obviously cannot be considered historical, the  similarity of language and style within the Sangam corpus suggests the  possibility that they were the product of some sort of literary gathering. The case  for the historicity of at least the third Sangam is that some of the kings and poets  associated with it are historical figures. On the other hand, there is a possibility  that the legend of the Sangams may have been based on a very different event—  the establishment of the Jaina sangha in Madurai in about the 5th century. In  view of the controversy surrounding the tradition of the three Sangams, some  scholars prefer to use the term ‘early classical Tamil literature’ rather than  ‘Sangam literature’.  The Sangam corpus includes six of the eight anthologies of poems included in  the Ettutokai (The Eight Collections), and nine of the ten pattus (songs) of the  Pattuppattu (The Ten Songs). The style and certain historical references in the  poems suggest that they were composed between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd  century CE. They were compiled into anthologies in about the mid-8th century. A  few centuries later, these anthologies were collected into the super-anthologies  (i.e., anthologies of anthologies) called the Ettutokai and the Pattuppattu. The  earliest parts of the first two books of the Tolkappiyam can also be included in  Sangam literature. The Tolkappiyam is essentially a work on grammar, but it  also includes a discussion of phonology, semantics, syntax, and literary  conventions.  There are two kinds of Sangam poems—akam and puram. Akam poems had  love as their theme, while puram poems were mostly about war. A. K.  Ramanujan (1999) describes puram poetry as ‘public poetry’ which dealt withall kinds of themes other than love, such as good and evil, community and  kingdom. The poems were modelled on the bardic songs of older times and were  orally transmitted for an indefinite period before they were written down. The  anthologies include a total of 2,381 poems ascribed to 473 poets, 30 of whom  were women. The poets came from cities and villages and had varied social and  professional backgrounds. They included teachers, merchants, carpenters,  astrologers, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, soldiers, ministers, and kings. Due to their  varied themes and authorship, Sangam poems offer a good idea of everyday life  in the time when they were composed.  A number of Tamil didactic works were written in the post-5th century period.  The most famous of these is Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural, a work on ethics, polity,  and love (5th– 6th centuries). Of the several Tamil epics, two of the best known  are the Silappadikaram and Manimekalai. The former is a little earlier that the  latter, but both were composed in about the 5th–6th centuries CE.