Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 50 (History)
Book Name – Political Violence in Ancient India (Upinder Singh)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Early Archaeological and Textual Perspectives
2. The Wilderness in the Early Brahmanical Tradition
3. Buddhist Perspectives
3.1. Forest and Grove in the Buddhacharita
3.2. Compassionate Animals in the Jataka
4. Ashoka: Tyrant King or First Conservator of Nature?
4.1. Animals as Emblems of Empire and Dhamma
4.2. The Welfare of Animals
5. The Epic Wilderness: Mahabharata
5.1. Forest Dwellers
5.2. The Royal Hunt
6. The Forest in the Ramayana
6.1. The Kshatriya in the Forest
6.2. Living in the Forest
6.3. The Animal Characters
7. The Forest as an Economic Resource: The Arthashastra
7.1. Forest People
7.2. The Protection and Killing of Animals
8. Kamandaka’s Critique of the Royal Hunt
9. The Forest in Early Sanskrit Kävya: Bhasa
10. The King. Asrama, and Nature in Kalidasa’s Works
10.1. The Abhijnanashakuntala
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LANGUAGE
The Wilderness
Political Violence in Ancient India – Upinder Singh
Chapter – 5
Table of Contents
- Ancient Greeks marveled at India’s size, rivers, mountains, and its fertile land with diverse flora and fauna.
- They described wild mountain dwellers, such as Nulo Mountain men with backward-facing toes, dog-headed mencommunicating through barking, and Astomoi men without mouths living on odors.
- Pygmies, living in the farthest mountains, were described as small men fighting off cranes.
- Greek descriptions aimed to excite wonder and were part of a long tradition of ethnographic writing about distant lands.
- Greek fascination with Indian animals included tigers, lions, snakes, and especially elephants. Elephants were vital in Indian armies and used in battle and treaties.
- Nearchus and Megasthenes detailed the importance of elephants in Indian culture, noting the royal monopoly on owning elephants and horses.
- Descriptions of Indian hunting techniques involved kites, eagles, and fierce dogs for hunting, as well as royal hunting practices.
- Strabo describes the king’s royal hunt, with women accompanying him in chariots, elephants, and armed with weapons.
- Greek sources highlight the contrast between ordinary hunters (seen as uncultured and lowly) and royal hunters (celebrated for prowess).
- Allsen argues that royal hunting was politically important, connecting with legitimacy, interstate relations, warfare, and the use of natural resources.
- Use of elephants in warfare spread from India to Europe and Asia, with both African and Asian elephants used in battles.
- Roman spectacles included wild animal fights, with elephants, bears, and large felines often sourced from India.
- Deforestation in India escalated in the nineteenth century due to population growth, commercial farming, and railway expansion.
- Royal hunt was a significant political act, and the chapter examines its connection with Brahmanical ideas and representations in Buddhist texts, Ashoka’s inscriptions, epics, and political treatises.
- Wilderness in the chapter includes forests, grasslands, scrub, and wastelands, focusing on areas outside agrarian settlements.
Early Archaeological and Textual Perspectives
- Most histories of India focus on agriculture, cities, and kingdoms, often ignoring five facts:
- Hunting and gathering persisted alongside agriculture, but did not disappear.
- Hunter-gatherers, farmers, and city folk were connected through symbiotic relationships.
- Great empires coexisted with vast forest tracts where the state’s control was limited.
- Violence against forest inhabitants was inherent in the expansion of agriculture and states.
- Killing of powerful animals was an important aspect of ancient Indian kingship.
- While there are no statistics on the number of casualties in battles or animals killed, the importance of these events in political history and thought is significant.
- To understand the forest’s role in ancient Indian politics, it is crucial to examine the relationship between the state and forest, with cultural meanings of animals, hunting, and nature.
- The Harappan civilization had a diverse resource base including forests, grasslands, and coastal stretches.
- Harappans hunted deer, pig, boar, sheep, goat, tortoise, and fish, alongside agriculture and cattle rearing. Horse, elephant, and rhinoceros bones were found, indicating a varied subsistence economy.
- Animals like the elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, and unicorn were symbolically significant for the Harappans, and featured prominently on seals.
- The unicorn might have been a political symbol or representative of rulers.
- Textual references in early Sanskrit sources distinguish between the settlement (grāma/nagara) and the wilderness (vana/araṇya), with some overlap.
- Intermediate zones between the settlement and wilderness included gardens, game parks, pasturelands, and wastelands.
- The Arthashastra and later land-grant inscriptions presented a detailed ecological classification based on resource potential.
- Sangam poetry of South India presented five landscapes (tinai) with specific emotional associations:
- Kurinchi (mountain) – union of lovers.
- Palai (arid terrain) – separation.
- Mullai (pastoral) – patient waiting.
- Neytal (seashore) – pining.
- Marutam (riverine) – sulking.
- While composed in urban settings, Sangam poetry evokes natural landscapes, some of which may represent wilderness.
- Ancient Indian views on wilderness were not singular but varied over time:
- The wilderness was seen as a paradise of natural beauty.
- It was also a place inhabited by fierce tribes.
- It was considered the abode of demons.
- The wilderness symbolized exile from worldly pleasures.
- It was a place for release from the burdens of existence.
- In studying the wilderness as a site of conflict, it’s essential to consider all the roles it played in ancient Indian political processes, identity, and the definition of self and other.