Romila Thapar

---

The Penguin History of Early India

From the Origins to AD 1300

PENGUIN BOOKS

UK | USA | Canada | Ireland | Australia
New Zealand | India | South Africa

Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

First published as Early India by Allen Lane The Penguin Press 2002
Published under the present title in Penguin Books 2003

Copyright © Romila Thapar, 2002

The moral right of the author has been asserted

ISBN: 978-0-141-93742-7

For Sergei: in memoriam and remembering Kaushalya and Daya Ram and our many years together

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Note on the Bibliographies

Introduction

1 Perceptions of the Past

2 Landscapes and Peoples

3 Antecedents

4 Towards Chiefdoms and Kingdoms: c. 1200–600 BC

5 States and Cities of the Indo-Gangetic Plain: c. 600–300 BC

6 The Emergence of Empire: Mauryan India; c. 321–185 BC

7 Of Politics and Trade: c. 200 BC–AD 300

8 The Rise of the Mercantile Community: c. 200 BC–AD 300

9 Threshold Times: c. AD 300–700

10 The Peninsula: Emerging Regional Kingdoms; c. AD 500–900

11 The Peninsula: Establishing Authorities and Structures; c. AD 900–1300

12 The Politics of Northern India: c. AD 700–1200

13 Northern India: Distributive Political Economies and Regional Cultures; c. AD 800–1300

Maps

Chronology: c. 1000 BC–AD 1300

Select Bibliographies

General Bibliography

Glossary

Acknowledgements

Follow Penguin

List of Illustrations

FIGURES

1. Buddhist monastery: ground plan

2. Great Stupa, Sanchi: ground plan and elevation

3. Chaitya hall at Karle: plan and elevation

4. Vishnu Temple, Deogarh: plan

5. Nagara-style temple: elevation

6. Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal: half-plan and section

7. Circular Devi temple: plan

MAPS

1. Geographical Features

2. Archaeological Sites Relating to Pre-history and Proto-history

3. Northern India c. 1200 to 500 BC

4. Kingdoms and Chiefdoms: Mid-first Millennium BC

5. Some Sites of the Mauryan Period

6. North India and West Asia c. 200 BC to AD 300

7. Central Asia and China

8. The India Peninsula c. 200 BC to AD 300

9. The Indian Subcontinent: Mid-first Millennium AD

10. Indian Contacts with South East Asia

11. The Indian Peninsula c. AD 700 to 1300

12. Northern India c. AD 700 to 1100

13. Northern India c. AD 900 to 1300

The external boundaries of India as depicted in the maps are neither correct nor authentic.

Preface

It has been almost four decades since the first version of this book was written and in that time there have been substantial changes in the readings of Indian history. These have come about as a result of some new data, together with many fresh interpretations of the known data. My attempt here has been to incorporate the essentials of the new data and interpretations while retaining some of the older arguments where they are still relevant.

A major amendment to this book lies in its chronological span. It now closes at c. AD 1300 instead of AD 1526 as in the earlier version. After many years, I have finally persuaded Penguin that the history of India should be covered in three volumes and not be restricted to two. The earlier division of two volumes did not do justice to the important period from c. AD 1300 to 1800 and this is now being corrected. The final volume will bring the narrative up to contemporary times. This change also provides more space for each volume. An introduction already exists to the pre-history and proto-history of India in the volume by F. R. and B. Allchin, The Birth of Indian Civilisation, revised in 1993, also published by Penguin, as well as The Origins of a Civilization by the same authors and published by Viking in 1997 (Penguin, 1998). I have therefore given only a brief overview of prehistory and protohistory.

In the course of writing this book I have drawn on many friends for comments on various chapters of an earlier draft. Among them I would like to thank R. Champakalakshmi, Madhav Gadgil, Dennis Hudson, Xinru Liu, Michael Meister, Vivek Nanda and K. N. Panikkar. My special thanks go to Susan Reynolds, not only for observations on specific chapters but also for many conversations about the book. I was delighted when Ravi Dayal suggested that he might like to read the penultimate draft and ploughed his way through it, with helpful remarks on what he had read. Naina’s postings of ‘not clear’ have hopefully made the narrative more lucid. Lucy Peck gallantly agreed to do rough drafts of all the maps, thus allowing me to include maps relating to every chapter. I would also like to thank the Homi Bhabha Fellowships Council for the award of a Senior Fellowship. The research carried out during this period contributed to the shaping of the earlier half of this book. And I would also like to thank David Ludden for arranging a series of lectures at the University of Pennsylvania which broadly covered the same themes.

Gene Smith was fantastically generous with time and effort when he painstakingly scanned the earlier version onto disk and this made the mechanics of rewriting much easier. Shirish and Gautam Patel and Chris Gomes have been unruffled by my frequent cries for help when the computer behaved unpredictably, and have patiently set me right, a patience also shown by Vivek Sharma. Rajani was the one person who over the years kept insisting that I revise the earlier book, and finally her insistence has had effect.

Romila Thapar
New Delhi
2001

Acknowledgements

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. The publishers shall be happy to make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention. The author would like to thank the following for permission to use copyright material in this book: extract from The Universal History of Numbers by George Ifrah published by the Harvill Press and used by permission of the Random House Group Ltd; extract from R. Parthasarathy’s translation of The Tale of an Anklet by permission of Columbia University Press; extract from S. Radhakrishnan’s translation of The Principle Upanisads by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; extracts from Nilakantha Sastri’s The Colas and Romila Thapar’s Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas by permission of Oxford University Press, New Delhi; extract from Ronald Latham’s translation of The Travels of Marco Polo by permission of Penguin Books Ltd; extracts from A. K. Ramanujam’s translations of Hymns for the Drowning by permission of Princeton University Press; extracts from A. L. Basham’s The Wonder that was India by permission of Macmillan Publishers; extracts from Indira V. Peterson’s Poems to Siva: The Hymns of the Tamil Saints by permission of the author; illustration of Nagara-style temple by permission of Michael Meister; Circular Deri temple plan by permission of Vidya Dehejia; Circular Devi temple plan by permission of Nilakanta Sastri and A. K. Ramanujan.

Note on the Bibliographies

A General Bibliography is included at the end of the book, with a broad coverage of books providing introductions to major aspects of the subject.

Select Bibliographies in the nature of further readings and specific to each chapter are grouped according to chapters and their subheadings. Books are listed in the order of the subject matter discussed within the text.

Bibliographies are limited to monographs as these are more accessible than articles in journals. However, since much of the new research is in papers in journals these journals are also listed for those who may wish to consult them.

Chronology

c. 1000 BC–AD 1300

The chronology of the earlier part of Indian history is notoriously uncertain compared to that of China or the Mediterranean world. Literary sources can belong to a span of time rather than a precise date. However, this ambiguity is offset in the data from inscriptions that are usually precisely dated, often in a known era. Most of the important dynasties of the early period used their own system of reckoning, which resulted in a number of unconnected eras. But among the more widely used eras are the Vikrama era of 58–57 BC and the Shaka era of AD 78. The Vikrama era was known earlier as the Krita or the Malava era. Others include the Gupta era of AD 319–20, the Harsha era of AD 606, the Vikrama-Chalukya era of AD 1075 and a variety of others. Buddhist sources generally reckon from the year of the death of the Buddha, but there are three alternative dates for this event – 544/486/483 BC. It is more usual to use either of the two latter dates, the first being generally doubted. Lately, there has been much discussion on the date of the Buddha and suggestions have taken this chronology to almost a hundred years later. But as yet there is no generally accepted agreement on a date, other than the traditional.

BC

c. 2600–1700	Harappan urbanization: Mature and Late Harappan
c. 1500–500	Composition and compilation of the Vedic corpus
	Neolithic and chalcolithic cultures in various parts of the subcontinent
	Megalithic burials, largely in the peninsula
c. 1000	Availability of iron artefacts
	Use of iron artefacts gradually increases in range and number after the sixth century BC
c. 6th century	Urbanization in the Ganges Plain
	Formation of the earliest states
	The rise of Magadha
	Mahavira
	Gautama Buddha
519	Cyrus, the Achaemenid Emperor of Persia, conquers parts of north-western India
c. 493	Accession of Ajatashatru
486	Death of the Buddha
c. 362–321	Nanda dynasty
327–325	Alexander of Macedon in India
321	Accession of Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty
268–231	Reign of Ashoka
c. 250	Third Buddhist Council held at Pataliputra
185	Termination of Mauryan rule and accession of a Shunga king
180–165	Indo-Greek rule in the north-west under Demetrius
c. 166–150	Menander, the best known Indo-Greek ruler
c. 94	Maues, the Shaka King, in north-western India
58	Azes I, thought to have founded the Vikrama era
c. 50	Rise of Satavahana power in the Deccan
c. 50	Kharavela, King of Kalinga

AD

c. 50 BC–AD 50	Peak period of Roman trade with India
1st century AD	Kushana power established
? c. 78	Accession of Kanishka, Kushana King of the north-west Founding of the Shaka era
c. 125	Gautamiputra and subsequently Vasishthiputra ruling the Satavahana kingdom
c. 150	Rudradaman, the Shaka Kshatrapa King ruling in western India
319–20	Accession of Chandra Gupta I, founder of the Gupta dynasty
335	Accession of Samudragupta
375–415	Chandra Gupta II
405–11	Visit of Fa Hsien
c. 455	Skandagupta, in whose reign the Hunas attack north India
476	Aryabhatta, the astronomer
505	Varahamihira, the astronomer
543–66	Pulakeshin I and the rise of the Chalukyas of Badami
c. 574–60	Rise of the Pallavas of Kanchi under Simhavishnu
606–47	Harshavardhana, King of Kannauj
630–643	Hsüan Tsang in India
600–630	Establishing of Pallava power under Mahendravarman
609–42	Establishment of Chalukya power under Pulakeshin II
	Start of rivalry between the Pallavas and Chalukyas
712	Arab conquest of Sind
736	Founding of Dhillika – the first city of Delhi
c. 752	Rashtrakuta victory over the Chalukyas
c. 770	Pala dynasty founded by Gopala in eastern India
c. 780	The rise of the Gurjara Pratiharas
c. 788–820	Shankaracharya
814–80	Reign of Amoghavarsha, the Rashtrakuta King
c. 840	Establishing of the Pratiharas under King Bhoja
c. 907	Parantaka I strengthens Chola power in south India
c. 973	Chalukyas of Kalyani defeat the Rashtrakutas
985–1014	Rajaraja I extends Chola power
1000–1026	Raids of Mahmud of Ghazni into north-western India
1023	Northern campaign of Rajendra Chola
1025	Naval campaign of the Cholas
1030	Alberuni in India
c. 1075	Ramanuja
1077–1147	Establishment of the Ganga kingdom
1077	Embassy of Chola merchants to China
1077–1120	Ramapala re-enforces the Pala kingdom
1110	Rise of Vishnuvardhana and Hoysala power
1144–71	Kumarapala, the Chaulukya/Solanki King
1148	Kalhana writes the Rajatarangini
1192	Prithviraja Chauhan defeated by Muhammad Ghuri at the battle of Tarain
1206	Establishment of the Delhi Sultanate under Qutb-ud-din Aibak
c. 1250	Sun temple at Konarak
1246–79	Rajendra III, the last Chola King