Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography (10 page)

The intellectual innovations of the age
were not limited to religious philosophy. For instance, the period also witnesses
the systematization of Ayurveda, India’s traditional medical system. A
compendium compiled by Sushruta, who also lived near Varanasi, contains a long list
of sophisticated surgical instruments and procedures.
¹³
There are detailed descriptions of plastic surgery, ophthalmic couching
(dislodging of the lens of the eye), perineal lithotomy (cutting for bladder
stones), the removal of arrows and splinters and the dissection of dead bodies for
the study of anatomy.
¹⁴

Unfortunately, most of this knowledge
would be lost in the medieval era. Nevertheless, some techniques survived in
isolated pockets and were witnessed by European visitors in the eighteenth century.
This includes the famous ‘rhinoplasty’ operation that took place
in Pune in March 1793 that would change the course of plastic surgery in Europe and
the world. Cowasjee was a Maratha (more likely Parsi) bullock-cart driver with the
English army during its campaigns against Tipu Sultan of Mysore. He was captured and
had his nose and one hand cut off. After a year without a nose, he and four others
submitted themselves to an Indian surgeon who used skin from
their foreheads to repair the noses. We know little about the surgeon but two senior
British surgeons from Bombay Presidency witnessed this operation and sent back
detailed descriptions and diagrams. The publication in Europe in 1816 of their
account would give birth to modern plastic surgery.

Of course, all the cultural and
intellectual activity of this period was not limited to the Gangetic heartland. Take
for example Panini, the famous grammarian, who standardized the Sanskrit language
during the fifth century
BC
. He is said to have been born
in Gandhara (eastern Afghanistan) and to have lived in Taxila (near modern
Islamabad). This part of the subcontinent was about to witness the first attempt by
a European power to conquer India.

The world of small tribal kingdoms
described above went through a major shift in the third and fourth century
BC
. This happened almost simultaneously across the ancient
world. It was not so much a change in technology as a shift in political ideology
and ambition. Within a couple of generations, we see the idea of empire inspire a
series of remarkable leaders around the world, whose conquests would redefine the
political geography of the world.

The first of the empire-builders was
Cyrus the Great of Persia in the sixth century
BC
, but it
is only in the fourth century that we begin to see empire-building on a totally
different scale. In China, King Hui of Qin began a cycle of conquest around 330
BC
that would culminate in the first
empire under Shi Huangdi a century later. At around the same
time, Alexander the Great would take control of Greece, Egypt, the Levant,
Mesopotamia, Bactria and Persia. Then in the winter of 327-326
BC
he marched into India. Here he built an alliance with Ambhi, the king
of Taxila. Together they defeated Porus on the banks of the Jhelum. It is possible
that the name Porus refers to the Puru tribe that had inhabited the area since the
Rig Vedic times.

Alexander wanted to push on eastwards
but his troops were tired after years on the march. Also, there were stories about a
large Magadhan army that would be mobilized against them in the Gangetic plains.
With his army in virtual mutiny, Alexander was forced to turn back. However, he did
not go back the way he had come but fatefully chose to sail down the Indus under the
mistaken belief that the Indus constituted the upper reaches of the Nile. The
Macedonians thought that if they just sailed down the Indus, they would end up in
the Mediterranean! They had reached this conclusion because of the apparent
similarities between the flora and fauna of India and those of the upper reaches of
the Nile (Arrian mentions crocodiles and a certain variety of beans). As
Alexander’s army sailed down the Indus, it defeated many tribes and
brutally destroyed several settlements. There is also a fascinating account of how a
local chieftain entertained Alexander with a gladiatorial match between a lion and
ferocious dogs (the Indians claimed that the dogs had been bred from tigresses).
¹⁵

On reaching the sea, the Macedonians
discovered their mistake. They were then forced to march along the dry Makran and
Persian Gulf coast. This was the same route that early
humans
had used when they migrated east to the subcontinent. However, climatic conditions
and the coastline had dramatically changed. Without proper maps, provisions and
water, the desert exacted a terrible toll. Soldiers and pack animals died in large
numbers from hunger and thirst. Much of the plunder accumulated over years of
campaigning had to be abandoned for lack of horses and men. Alexander’s
army arrived back in Babylon undefeated but decimated. The conqueror himself died
soon afterwards, possibly poisoned by followers who no longer believed in his
leadership. Alexander’s empire was divided up amongst his generals and his
young son was murdered. The lack of geographical knowledge proved deadlier than the
sword. As we shall see, when Europeans attempted to take control of India two
millennia later, they would take great care to map it.

Alexander’s invasion is not
mentioned directly in Indian texts but the Macedonians have left us detailed
accounts of their adventures.
¹⁶
Some of them includes fantastical tales about giant ants that were used to dig
for gold. However, for the most part, their observations were accurate. Nearchus,
Alexander’s admiral, tells us that Indians wore clothes made from white
cotton. The lower garment reached below the knee, halfway to the ankles. The upper
garment was thrown over the shoulder and a turban was worn on the head. Nearchus was
describing the dhoti and angavastra—clothes that have been worn since
Vedic times and continue to be worn even today. He goes on to say that wealthy
Indians wore ivory earrings and used parasols against the sun. They also wore
leather sandals with elaborate trimmings and thick soles to make themselves look
taller!

Although Alexander’s invasion
did not make much of a dent in the Indian heartland, it did trigger a chain of
events that led to the founding of India’s first great empire, that of the
Mauryas. The empire was created by two extraordinary characters: Chanakya (also
called Kautilya
¹⁷
) and his pupil Chandragupta Maurya. The Persian, Chinese and Macedonian Greek
empires were created by princes and warriors. In contrast, Chanakya was a professor
of Political Economy in Taxila. When Alexander entered into an alliance with the
king of Taxila, the Brahmins of the city opposed this. Plutarch tells us that
Alexander had several of them hanged to death.
¹⁸

According to legend, Chanakya then
travelled east to Pataliputra (modern Patna), capital of the powerful kingdom of
Magadh to ask for help against the Greeks. However, he was insulted and thrown out
by the king of the Nanda dynasty. Chanakya decided to return to Taxila to plot his
revenge. On the way he met a boy called Chandragupta Maurya. There are some
interesting tales—impossible to verify—about how they met.
Chanakya took the boy back with him and began to train him for future kingship. He
also wrote the
Arthashastra
(Treatise on Prosperity), a detailed manual on
how to run the future empire.

When Alexander died, there was a power
vacuum in northwest India. Chanakya and his protégé used the
opportunity to put together a band of rebels. However, their initial efforts at
unseating the Nanda king of Magadh appear to have failed. There is a legend that
tells of how Chandragupta had to flee into the forests to escape the Nanda king.
Overcome with fatigue he collapsed and fell into a deep slumber. However, a lion
appeared and licked him clean. Then it stood guard till
the
future king awoke. When Chandragupta realized what had happened, he saw it as a good
omen and renewed his efforts to unseat the Nandas. The story may have been spread by
later Mauryan propagandists but, yet again, it emphasizes the symbolic importance of
the lion.

After several years of effort, Chanakya
managed to cobble together a large army, possibly with the help of the hill tribes
of Himachal. He and Chandragupta slowly took control of the north-west of the
country. Then they steadily encroached into the Gangetic plains. Around 321
BC
, they defeated the Nanda king of Magadh and emerged as
the paramount power in the subcontinent. Astonishingly, Chanakya did not take the
throne for himself but crowned his pupil. Then they spent over a decade establishing
control over central India.

By around 305
BC
, Chandragupta felt confident enough to directly confront the
Macedonians. One of Alexander’s most talented generals, Seleucus Nikator,
was in control of the conqueror’s Asian domains, including Persia and
Central Asia. He also laid claim to the Indian territories conquered by Alexander.
However, judging from the terms of a treaty between the two in 303
BC
, the Mauryan army decisively won the war. Chandragupta
gained control over Balochistan and Afghanistan. Seleucus also gave his daughter in
marriage to a Mauryan prince, perhaps Chandragupta himself.

For three generations, the Mauyran
empire would cover the whole subcontinent from the edge of eastern Iran to what is
now Bangladesh. Only the southernmost tip of India would remain outside its direct
control. At its height, it was the largest and most populous empire in the world,
dwarfing both Alexander’s domains and those of Shi Huangdi in China.
Furthermore, unlike the empires of Alexander and the first
Chinese empire, the Mauyran empire lasted at least three generations as a complete
unit.

Yet, both Chanakya and Chandragupta were
very unlike the other two empire-builders. Chanakya was happy to remain a minister
and, according to one version, may have gone back to teaching in Taxila once the
empire had been stabilized.
¹⁹
In 297
BC
, Chandragupta placed his son Bindusara on
the throne, gave up all worldly possessions and became a Jain monk. He took the
Dakshina Path and travelled down to Sravana Belagola (in Karnataka) and, according
to Jain tradition, starved himself to death to cleanse his soul.

The hill on which he spent his last days
meditating and fasting is still called Chandragiri in his honour.

The renunciation of power remains a
powerful theme in later Indian history. When India became independent in 1947,
Mahatma Gandhi refused all positions of power and made way for his
protégé Jawaharlal Nehru to become modern India’s first
prime minister. Civilizations have long memories, both conscious and sub-conscious,
and the legendary deeds of ancient heroes can echo down the centuries. We see this
in China too where Mao Zedong liked to have himself compared to Qin Shi Huangdi.

The second Mauryan emperor Bindusara
ruled from 297 to 272
BC
. His reign appears to have been
a period of relative calm and consolidation. We have records of how the Mauryan
emperor exchanged ambassadors and trade delegations with Alexander’s
successors in the Middle East. There is a tale that the second emperor, Bindusara,
asked Antiochus of Syria for figs, wine and a Greek teacher of rhetoric. Antiochus
sent the
figs and the wine but refused the last request on
grounds that Greek law did not permit the sale of scholars!
²⁰

There appears to have been a succession
struggle on Bindusara’s death. The winner of the fratricidal struggle was
Ashoka who was crowned in 268
BC
. He was not his
father’s chosen successor but would rule the empire for forty years. In
260
BC
, Ashoka would expand the empire for one last time
to include Kalinga (roughly modern Orissa). He now ruled the whole subcontinent
except for the small kingdoms of the extreme south with whom he had friendly
relations. They are mentioned by name: Chola, Pandya, Keralaputra and Satiyaputra.
Note the longevity of the names. The Cholas would remain a powerful clan for the
next one and half millennia and would head a powerful empire of their own in the
tenth and eleventh century
AD
. We will revisit them in a
later chapter. The name of the Keralaputras has proven even more persistent, and the
state at the south-western tip of the Indian peninsula is today called Kerala in
their memory.

Ashoka is the first Indian monarch who
has left us artifacts that indisputably belong to his reign. To be absolutely
accurate, the name Ashoka does not appear on any major edict inscription. The edicts
were issued by a king who called himself ‘Beloved of the Gods’,
Piyadassi. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence that link Piyadassi to
Buddhist legends about a great king called Ashoka. The link was discovered from
dynastic lists in the Puranas, Hindu religious texts, that describe a king called
Ashoka as Chandragupta’s grandson.

Best known of Ashokan artifacts are a
series of edicts engraved on rocks and on stone pillars scattered across the empire.
These pillars and inscriptions have been found across the subcontinent from
Afghanistan in the north to Karnataka in the south, Gujarat in the west to Bengal in
the east. They are also scattered across the northern plains, including one in Delhi
(near Greater Kailash). Given the lapse of time, it is safe to assume that there
were many more pillars and inscriptions that did not survive. Still, what remains is
impressive and gives us a sense of the scale and extent of the Mauryan empire.

The edicts and inscriptions have
elicited a great deal of interest ever since they were deciphered in the nineteenth
century. This is not surprising given their age as well as the sentiments they
express. Ashoka openly regrets the invasion of Kalinga and the bloodshed it caused.
He exhorts his subjects to be good citizens, while underscoring his own commitment
to their welfare. Below is an example of one of his edicts: