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The Image of the Barbarian in Early India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Romila Thapar
Romila Thapar
Affiliation:
Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityNew Delhi
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Extract

The concept of the barbarian in early India arises out of the curious situation of the arrival of Indo-Aryan-speaking nomadic pastoralists in northern India who came into contact with the indigenous population (possibly the remnants of the urban civilization of the Indus) and regarded them as barbarians. The earliest distinction made by the Aryan speakers was a linguistic distinction and, to a smaller extent, a physical distinction. The Indo-Aryan speakers spoke Sanskrit whereas the indigenous peoples probably spoke Dravidian and Munda. However the distinction was not one of binary opposition—in fact it admitted to many nuances and degrees of variation, hence the complication of trying to trace the history of the concept. The distinction was rarely clearly manifest and based either on language, ethnic origins or culture. Political status, ritual status and economic power, all tended to blur the contours of the distinction. Added to this has been the confusion introduced by those who tend to identify language with race and who thereby see all speakers of Sanskrit as members of that nineteenth-century myth, the Aryan race.

Type
Perception of Ethnic and Cultural Differences
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , October 1971 , pp. 408 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1971

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References

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51 Jātaka, VI, 208, 210.Google Scholar Cf. Maṇu, X, 44.Google Scholar

52 Summahgala Vilasini, I, 276; Sammoha-vinodani, 388.Google Scholar

53 Ibid; the ancestry of the Pulinda located in Ceylon alone, according to the Buddhist sources, derives from the marriage of prince Vijaya with the demoness Kuveni.

54 The cāṇḍāta is known and mentioned in Buddhist sources but usually in the context of his overcoming his low status although this is often done through the acquisition of some spiritual power.

55 Major Rock Edict, XII. Bloch, J., Les Inscriptions d‘Asoka, pp. 130 ff. Aśoka lists the Yona, Kāmboja, Nābhaka, Bhoja, Pitinika, Āndhra and Pālida.Google Scholar

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59 Matsya Purāṇa, 34, 30; 50, 76.

60 Utpala's commentary on the Brhatsamhita, XIII, 3. describes the Śakas as mleccha-Jātayo-rājanas and adds that the period of their destruction by Vikramāditya would be known as Saka-kāla.Google Scholar

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67 The Allahabad prasasti of Samudragupta. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, III, pp. 6 ff.Google Scholar

68 The eighteen major Purāṇas were recorded from about the third century A.D. onwards. They claim to be compendia of information orally transmitted over a period going back to c. 3000 B.C. The texts deal with the mythologies of the creation of the universe, genealogies of kings and sages, social custom and religious practices generally pertaining to a particular sect of which each Purāṇas claims to be the sacred book. In fact much of the material reflects contemporary attitudes at the time of the composition of the Purāṇas. The genealogical sections are in the form of a prophecy, an obvious attempt to claim antiquity.

69 Purāṇic cosmology envisages a cyclical movement of time and the world goes through a period of four ages with the golden age at the start and an increase in evil through the duration of the cycle. The last of the four is the Kaliyuga at the end of which evil will be prevalent and the mleccha all-powerful. Ultimately the entire universe will be totally destroyed after which a new universe will be created and the cycle will start again.

70 Vāyu Purāṇia, 99; Bhāgvata, XII, 2, 12; 14, 38; II, 38; XII, 3, 25; 3, 35–6. Deprived of sacrificial activities the world will be reduced to mleccha-hood.Google Scholar

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73 In the Rudrādhyāya of the Yajurveda. Other degraded professions are the nomads, carpenters, chariot-makers, potters, smiths, fowlers, dog-keepers and hunters. In this text as also the Nirukta of Yāska they are mentioned as the fifth group after the four varṇas. III, 8; X, 3, 5–7.Google Scholar

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76 Viṣṇu Purāṇa, I, 13.Google Scholar

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79 The Amarakoṣa VII, 21; a lexicon of the post-Gupta period, in its definition of mleccha mentions these three tribes and describes them as hunters and deer killers, living in mountainous country, armed with bows and arrows and speaking an unintelligible language—the conventional description of the mleccha by the time of the medieval period. Yet the location of mleccha-deśa in this text is not in central India but in northern India.Google Scholar

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83 Bhāravi's long poem, the Kirātārjunīya, is based on an episode from the Mahābhārata when Arjuna goes into the Himalayas and does penance. He finally meets the god Śiva in the form of a Kirāta with whom he has a protracted fight, but eventually acquires the divine weapons which he is seeking. It is interesting that the Kirata should be identified with Śiva—perhaps suggesting their worship of Śiva, and also that it is through a Kirāta that the great hero Arjuna acquires the divine weapons.

84 Pampa Rāmāyaṇa, Nijagunayogi's Vivekacintamani, pp. 423–4. Chikka Deva inscription of the seventeenth century in Rice, , Mysore and Coorg from its Inscriptions, p. 129.Google Scholar

85 Buddhist sources refer to the children of the demoness whom prince Vijaya married on his arrival in Ceylon as the Pulinda and state that they lived in the interior of the island at a place called Sabaragamuva (= Śabaragrama, the village of the Śabaras?), Mahāvaṇsa, VII, 68Google Scholar; Vinaya Pifaka, I, 168.Google Scholar These have come to be associated with the primitive Veddah tribes of Ceylon. In early brahmanical sources they are mentioned as a wild mountain tribe of the Deccan, Aitereya Brāhmaṇa, VII, 18Google Scholar; Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, CLXXVII, 504.Google Scholar Later sources connect them with the Bhilas, Kathāsaritasāgara, II, 12Google Scholar; Amarakosa, II, 20–1.Google Scholar

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91 Rāmāyaṇa, IV, 37–8.Google Scholar

92 Amuktamālyada, IV, 206.Google Scholar

93 Viṣṇu Dharmasūtra, 71, 59; 84, 2–4Google Scholar; Vasiṣṭha, 6, 41Google Scholar; Gautama, IX, 17Google Scholar; Atri, VII, 2. The śrāddha ceremony was an essential rite for the arya since it concerned the offering of food to the spirits of the ancestors and thereby strengthened and re-affirmed kin-ties. It is clearly stated in the above texts that the ārya is prohibited from speaking with the mleccha, from learning their language or from making journeys to a mleccha-deśa since contact with the mleccha was polluting. The journeys were regarded with particular disapproval since the śrāddha ceremony could not be performed in such areas.Google Scholar

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95 Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, 174, 38; Mahāvastu, I, 135Google Scholar; Raghuvamśa, IV, 67–8.Google Scholar

96 Eran Stone Boar Inscription, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. III, p. 158Google Scholar; Sharma, G. R., Excavations at Kauāmsbi, pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

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98 E.g. Hsüan Tsang's descriptions: Beal, S., Buddhist Records of the Western World, I, pp. 171 ff.Google Scholar

99 Dhānyaviṣṇu the brother of Matrviṣṇu (yiśayapati of the Gupta king Budhagupta) became the feudatory of Toramāna. Cf. The Eran Inscription of Budhagupta, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, III, p. 89Google Scholar with the Eran Stone Boar Inscription of Toramāna, op. cit., p. 158. Budhagupta in his inscription is referred to merely as bhupati (king), whereas Toramana takes the full imperial title of Mahārājādhirāja and is described as ‘the glorious’, ‘of great fame and lustre’ and ‘ruling the earth’.Google Scholar

100 It is believed that the Gurjaras came from central India after the sixth century A.D. and were of Tocharian extraction, Bhandarkar, D. R., Indian Antiquary, 01 1911, p. 21–2Google Scholar; Bannerjee, A. C., Lectures in Rajput History, p. 7Google Scholar; Bagchi, P. C., India and Central Asia, p. 17. Place names in the Panjab–Gujerat, Gujeranwala, etc.,–suggest a settlement there as do the presence of the Gujjar herdsmen in Kashmir. The Gurjara Pratiharas ruled in western India, and there is the more recent Gujerat as a name of western India. The existence of the Gujjar caste in Maharashtra points to a further movement towards the south; I. Karve, Hindu Society. The Bad-Gujar clan survives among the Rajputs as also the brāhman caste, Gujai-Gauda.Google Scholar

The Ābhlra are nomadic herdsmen who are believed to have migrated into India with the Scythians. Some of them very soon rose to importance, such as the general Rudrabhuti, Gunda Inscription of A.D. 181 in Epigraphia Indica, VIII, p. 188Google Scholar. They are located in the lower Indus and Kathiawar region, Bhāgvata Purāna, 1, 10, 35Google Scholar; Periplus, 41Google Scholar; Ptolemy, VII, 1, 55Google Scholar. The Ābhtras are described as mlecchas and Mdras in status, Manu, X, 15Google Scholar; Mahabhasya, I, 2, 72Google Scholar. They gradually took over political power from the Sakas and the Satavahanas and spread down the west coast of India where there is mention of the Konkanabhlra, Brhatsamhita, 14, 12; 5, 42; 14, 18Google Scholar. Samudragupta in the Allahabad praiasti refers to the conquest of the Ābhlras, , Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, III, 6 ffGoogle Scholar. A tenth-century Pratihara inscription speaks of removing the menace of the Ābhlras in western India, Ghatiyala Pillar Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 280Google Scholar

101 This situation is discussed by Sharma, R. S. in his book, Indian Feudalism.Google Scholar

102 Ghatiyala Pillar Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 280.Google Scholar

103 The Gaṅga and Caṇella dynasty claim Candravaśṃi descent, the Gurjara-Pratihāras Sūryavaṃśi descent and the Parmaras regard their ancestor as having emerged from the Agnikula. The Gūhilas, the Cālukyas of Veṅgi, the Cālukyas of Bādami and the Cālukyas of Kalyāni all claim solar descent, Sircar, D. C., ‘The Guhila Claim of Solar Origin’, The Journal of Indian History, 1964, No. 42.Google Scholar

104 An example of this, which was a common condition, is discussed in Sircar, D. C., The Guhilas of KishkindaGoogle Scholar. Even the Khaśa chiefs claim kṣatriya status in the Bodh Gaya inscription, Epigraphia Indica, XII, p. 30Google Scholar. The Pratihāra claim to descend from Lakṣmaṇa the younger brother of Rāma who acted as a door-keeper (pratihāra) is very suspicious, Indian Antiquary, January 1911, p. 23.Google Scholar

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The same policy was adopted by the Mughals who located colonists in these areas partly to encourage them in the ways of Islam and of‘civilization’ and partly to keep a check on them, particularly at the time of the Maratha-Mughal conflict when the Vindhyan tribes occupied a strategic geographical position. It is not surprising that, during the period of British rule in India, Christian missionaries were extremely active in these regions.

106 Una Pillar Inscription of Avanivarman II dated A.D. 899, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 6 ff.Google Scholar

107 Atpur Inscription of Śaktikumār, Indian Antiquary, XXXIX, p. 191 ff.Google Scholar

108 Kanhadeprabandha of Padmanābha, a fifteenth-century work, mentions a Huna among the list of Rajput jāgirdars, The Journal of Indian History, XXXVIII, p. 106.Google Scholar

109 Amarakosa, II, 10, 2; 5, 16; 8, 13; 4, 11; 4, 29; 2, 13.Google Scholar

110 Rice, , Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 5.Google Scholar

111 Epigraphia Carnatica, VII, p. 188; VI, p. 113–14.Google Scholar

112 The Gaṅga king Koṅgunivarman gave a grant in A.D. 887.

113 Saletore, B. N., Wild Tribes in Indian History, p. 81 ff.Google Scholar

114 Ray, , Dynastic History of Northern India, II, p. 941.Google Scholar

115 Bargaon Copper-plate of Ratnapāla, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, p. 99Google Scholar; Pārbatiya plates of Vanmālaveramadeva, Epigraphia Indica, XXIX, pp 145 ff. It has been suggested that the name Śālastambha approximates a Sanskritized version of the name of the Tibetan king, Sron-bstam-sgam-po.Google Scholar

116 Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, 174, 38Google Scholar; Maṇu, X, 43–4Google Scholar; Matsya Purāna, 16, 16.Google Scholar

117 Brhatsamhita, V, 80Google Scholar; Mārkaṇdeya Purāna, 57, 39. Chinese interest in eastern India during the seventh century A.D. is attested to in the reign of Harsa and by his contemporaries in Assam. The pedestal inscription on the tomb of Tai Tsung mentions a diplomatic connection with eastern India.Google Scholar

118 Gwalior Inscription of Nagabhatta I; Sagar Tal Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, XVIII, p. 107 ffGoogle Scholar. An Arab attack on Kashmir in the eighth century is mentioned in the Rājatarahgini, VIII, 2764.Google Scholar

119 Māhamadi Sāhi Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, I, p. 93Google Scholar; Jaitrasimhadeva grant, Epigraphia Indica, XXXII, pp. 220 ff.Google Scholar; Vilāsa grant of Prolaya Nāyaka, Epigraphia Indica, XXXIII, pp. 239 ff.Google Scholar; Chitorgarh praśasti, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XXIII, p. 49Google Scholar; Madras Museum Plates, Epigraphia Indica VIII, p. 9Google Scholar; Bhilsa Inscription of Jayasimha, Epigraphia Indica XXXV, p. 187Google Scholar; Dantewara Inscription of A.D. 1703, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 164.Google Scholar

120 Bhatūrya Inscription of Rajyapāla, Epigraphia Indica, XXXIII, p. 150Google Scholar; Chitorgarh praśasti of Rana Kumbhakarṇa, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XXIII, p. 49Google Scholar; Bālaghāta Plate of Prithviśena II, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 270.Google Scholar

121 Sāgar Tal Inscription of Mihlra Bhoja, Epigraphia Indica, XVIII, p. 107.Google Scholar

122 Śaka inscriptions reveal this very clearly as also the names of the Indo-Greeks, Epigraphia Indica, VII, p. 53, 55Google Scholar; Epigraphia Indica, VIII, 90Google Scholar; Archaeological Survey of Western India, IV, pp. 92 ff.Google Scholar

123 Mention is made of the Gandhāra and Kāmboja melodies as also of Śaka and Ābhlra melodies, Pañcatantra, Apaniksetakanakam 55.

124 From this point of view at least Indian eating habits and rituals would form an ideal subject for structuralist analysis, along the lines of the theories developed by Lévi-Strauss. See Maṇu, IV, 205–25; 247–53; for laws regarding the acceptance of various kinds of food.Google Scholar

125 Trikāṇdas'esa in Nāmalinganuśāsana of Amarakoṣạ.

126 For the prohibition on onions and garlic, Manu, V, 19Google Scholar; for references to eating the flesh of the cow, Jaiminl, I, 3, 10Google Scholar and Rājatarahginī, VII, 1232.Google Scholar

127 Mahābhārata, Parva, Santi, LXV, 13–15.Google Scholar

128 Viṣṇu Dharmaiastra, 84, 4Google Scholar; ArthaSastra, III, 13–15.Google Scholar

129 Mathura Lion Capital Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 141Google Scholar; Mandasor Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, VIII, p. 95Google Scholar; Viṣṇudatta Inscription, Epigraphia Indica, VIII, p. 88. Śaka kings often refer to themselves as dhārmika on coin legends with the symbol of the Dharmacakra on the coin.Google Scholar

130 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909, pp. 1053 ff.Google Scholar

131 Eran Stone Boar Inscription. The varāha cave is at Udayagiri.

132 As for example the reference to Jalauka in the Rājataranginī, I, 108–52.Google Scholar

133 The snake cult or worship of the Nāga is attested to in literature as well as in the archaeological remains of a multitude of nāga shrines. It is frequently seen as the symbol of the chthonic goddess, of the ancestors and of lunar and fertility cults, and is commonly found even to this day in the Himalayan and Vindhyan regions. In the historical period it gained considerable respectability particularly in the peninsula.

134 There is mention in the Ṛg Veda of the pre-Aryan cults such as the worship of the phallus, śiṣṇadevaḥ, and the existence of sorceresses, yatumati, practising magic. The Harappan evidence clearly indicates the worship of the mother goddess which was new to the Aryan religion.

135 Harivanśia, II, 22, 59.Google Scholar

136 Ibid., II, 22, 53–4.

137 Ibid., II, 3, 12. She is sometimes described as krsnachavisama kr$na (as black as can be), adorned with peacock feathers and with dishevelled hair. Bana, writing in the seventh century A.D. when speaking of the mleccha tribe of the Vindyas, describes a Durga temple, Kddambari, p. 331. Of the Pulindas said to be living in the Vindhyan region, an eleventh-century text states that their king adores the cruel Devi, offers her human victims and pillages the caravans, Kathāsaritasāgara, IV, 22.Google Scholar

138 Harivamśa, II, 58Google Scholar; Daśakumaracarita, I, 14; VI, 149; VIII, 206.Google Scholar

139 Vākpati, , Gauḍavaho, V, 305.Google Scholar

140 Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, LXXXII, 10–18.Google Scholar

141 Bhamya Purāṇa, II, 26; I, 39Google Scholar. Samba Purāṇa, 27, 28.Google Scholar

142 Mahābhārata, Parva, Aṇu, XC, 11Google Scholar. Maṇu, III, 162.Google Scholar

143 Brhatsamhita, LX, 9.Google Scholar

144 Patterson, Maureen, ‘Chitpavan Brahman Family Histories’, in Structure and Change in Indian Society, (ed.) Singer, Milton and B. Cohn.Google Scholar