Āryāvarta: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

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{{See also|Sanskritisation|Hindu synthesis|Greater Magadha}}

{{See also|Sanskritisation|Hindu synthesis|Greater Magadha}}

⚫
, Greater Magadha was outside Aryavarta, the heartland of Vedic Brahmanism was primarily associated with a single state, the Kuru kingdom. According to Bronkhorst, the various emperors of Magadha had little interest in Brahmanism,{{efn|In contrast to the Jain legends which developed 900 years later,{{sfn|Jansari|2023|pp=20–22}} contemporary Greek evidence states that [[Chandragupta Maurya]], the founder and first emperor of the [[Maurya Empire]] and grandfather of [[Ashoka]], was associated with Vedic Brahminism.{{sfn|Majumdar|Raychauduhuri|Datta|1960}} Chandragupta sponsored [[Yajna|Vedic sacrifices]]{{sfn|Eraly|2002|pp=414–415}} and Brahmanical rituals.{{sfn|Sastri|1988|pp=163–164}} He also delighted in hunting,{{sfn|Majumdar|Raychauduhuri|Datta|1960}} an activity not typically associated with the strict non-violence of later sectarian ascetic sects such as Jainism and Buddhism.}} and the conquest of the Vedic heartland by the Nanda and Maurya rulers deprived the Brahmins of their patrons, threatening the survival of the Vedic ritual tradition and creating opportunities for Buddhists and Jains to spread their religions outside the confines of Magadha.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2016|p=9-10}}

The post-Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation saw a decline of Vedic ritualism or Brahmanism.{{sfn|Michaels|2004|p=37-39}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2017|p=363}}

⚫
According to Bronkhorst, Greater Magadha was outside Aryavarta, the heartland of Vedic Brahmanism west of this confluence, which he claims was primarily associated with a single state, the Kuru kingdom. According to Bronkhorst, the various emperors of Magadha had little interest in Brahmanism,{{efn|In contrast to the Jain legends which developed 900 years later,{{sfn|Jansari|2023|pp=20–22}} contemporary Greek evidence states that [[Chandragupta Maurya]], the founder and first emperor of the [[Maurya Empire]] and grandfather of [[Ashoka]], was associated with Vedic Brahminism.{{sfn|Majumdar|Raychauduhuri|Datta|1960}} Chandragupta sponsored [[Yajna|Vedic sacrifices]]{{sfn|Eraly|2002|pp=414–415}} and Brahmanical rituals.{{sfn|Sastri|1988|pp=163–164}} He also delighted in hunting,{{sfn|Majumdar|Raychauduhuri|Datta|1960}} an activity not typically associated with the strict non-violence of later sectarian ascetic sects such as Jainism and Buddhism.}} and the conquest of the Vedic heartland by the Nanda and Maurya rulers deprived the Brahmins of their patrons, threatening the survival of the Vedic ritual tradition and creating opportunities for Buddhists and Jains to spread their religions outside the confines of Magadha.{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2016|p=9-10}}

According to Bronkhorst, the Brahmins overcame their deprivation of patrons by providing new services{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2015|p=2}} and by incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain along with local religious traditions, giving rise to the [[Hindu synthesis]].{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2016|p=9-10}}

According to Bronkhorst, the Brahmins overcame their deprivation of patrons by providing new services{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2015|p=2}} and by incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain along with local religious traditions, giving rise to the [[Hindu synthesis]].{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2016|p=9-10}}

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[[Patrick Olivelle]], writing in 1993, is critical of a number of authors who see Śramaṇa seers of Magadha as non-Brahmanical, anti-Brahmanical, or even non-Aryan precursors of later sectarian ascetics. According to Olivelle, these scholars are trying to draw conclusions that far outstrip the available empirical evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |year=1993 |title=The Aśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-534478-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheAsramaSystem/page/68/mode/1up?q=Bronkhorst |url-access=limited |via=Archive.org|page=68-70}}</ref>

[[Patrick Olivelle]], writing in 1993, is critical of a number of authors who see Śramaṇa seers of Magadha as non-Brahmanical, anti-Brahmanical, or even non-Aryan precursors of later sectarian ascetics. According to Olivelle, these scholars are trying to draw conclusions that far outstrip the available empirical evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |year=1993 |title=The Aśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-534478-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheAsramaSystem/page/68/mode/1up?q=Bronkhorst |url-access=limited |via=Archive.org|page=68-70}}</ref>

In his review of “Greater Magadha,” Alexander Wynne proposed that unorthodox Brahmin thinkers in the eastern gangetic plains developed the ideas that triggered the ascetic and philosophical culture Bronkhorst associates with Greater Magadha.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wynne on Bronkhorst, ‘Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India’ {{!}} H-Net |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/reviews/16094/wynne-bronkhorst-greater-magadha-studies-culture-early-india |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=networks.h-net.org}}</ref>

In his review of “Greater Magadha,” Alexander Wynne proposed that unorthodox Brahmin thinkers in the eastern gangetic plains developed the ideas that triggered the ascetic and philosophical culture Bronkhorst associates with Greater Magadha.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wynne on Bronkhorst, ‘Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India’ {{!}} H-Net |url=https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/reviews/16094/wynne-bronkhorst-greater-magadha-studies-culture-early-india |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=networks.h-net.org}}</ref>

On the other hand, Geoffrey Samuel, following Thomas Hopkins, also proposed that the Central Gangetic region formed a “distinct but related cultural complex,” as exemplified by the Painted Grey Ware, which did not spread past the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} It was the area of the earliest known rice cultivation in South Asia,{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} and had reached the Chalcolithic when the Aryans first entered northwestern India.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} According to Hopkins, the Aryan societies and thiseastern Gangetic culture formed two separate sources for the development toward iron-working and urbanisation.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=50}} The Brahmins of the Aryan, Vedic cultural sphere perceived this eastern, non-Aryan, Jain-Buddhist cultural sphere as wholly different,{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=50}} with a religion fertility and female deities which dominated this area.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=51}}

On the other hand, Geoffrey Samuel, following Thomas Hopkins, also proposed that the Central Gangetic region formed a “distinct but related cultural complex,” as exemplified by the Painted Grey Ware, which did not spread past the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} It was the area of the earliest known rice cultivation in South Asia,{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} and had reached the Chalcolithic when the Aryans first entered northwestern India.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=49}} According to Hopkins, the Aryan societies and thiseastern Gangetic culture formed two separate sources for the development toward iron-working and urbanisation.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=50}} The Brahmins of the Aryan, Vedic cultural sphere perceived this eastern, non-Aryan, Jain-Buddhist cultural sphere as wholly different,{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=50}} with a religion fertility and female deities which dominated this area.{{sfn|Samuel|2010|p=51}}

Historical landscape

The approximate extent of Āryāvarta during the late Vedic period (ca. 1100-500 BCE). Aryavarta was limited to northwest India and the western Ganges plain, while Greater Magadha in the east was habitated by non-Vedic Indo-Aryans and other people, who gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism.
Vedic India[citation needed]
Cemetery H, Late Harappan, OCP, Copper Hoard and Painted Grey ware sites.

Āryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, lit. ‘Land of the Noble ones‘,[a][web 1][web 2] Sanskrit pronunciation: [aːrjaːˈʋərtə]) is a term for the northern Indian subcontinent in the ancient Hindu texts such as Dharmashastras and Sutras, referring to the areas of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and surrounding regions settled during and after the Indo-Aryan migrations by Indo-Aryan tribes and where Indo-Aryan religion and rituals predominated. The limits of Āryāvarta extended over time, as reflected in the various sources, as the influence of the Brahmanical ideology spread eastwards in post-Vedic times.[4]

Geographical boundaries

[edit]

Course of the Ganges; Ganges-Yamuna doab western part of the green area.
The Ganges-Yamuna doab.

The Baudhayana Dharmasutra (BDS) 1.1.2.10 (perhaps compiled in the 8th to 6th centuries BCE) declares that Āryāvarta is the land that lies west of Kālakavana, east of Adarsana, south of the Himalayas and north of the Vindhyas, but in BDS 1.1.2.11 Āryāvarta is confined to the doab of the Ganges–Yamuna. BDS 1.1.2.13-15 considers people from beyond this area as of mixed origin, and hence not worthy of emulation by the Aryans. Some sutras recommend expiatory acts for those who have crossed the boundaries of Aryavarta. Baudhayana Srautasutra recommends this for those who have crossed the boundaries of Aryavarta and ventured into far away places.[5]

The Vasistha Dharma Sutra (oldest sutras ca. 500–300 BCE) I.8-9 and 12-13 locates the Āryāvarta to the east of the disappearance of the Sarasvati River in the desert, to the west of the Kālakavana, to the north of the Pariyatra Mountains and the Vindhya Range and to the south of the Himalayas.

Patanjali‘s Mahābhāṣya (mid-2nd century BCE) defines Āryāvarta like the Vashistha Dharmasutra.[citation needed] According to Bronkhost, he “situates it essentially in the Ganges plan, between the Thar Desert in the west and the confluence of the rivers Ganges (Ganga) and Jumna (Yamuna) in the east.”

The Manusmṛti (dated between 2nd cent. BCE to 3rd cent. CE) (2.22) gives the name to “the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya Ranges, from the Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)”.[7][8]

The Manava Dharmasastra (ca.150-250 CE) gives aryavarta as stretching from the eastern to the western seas, which Bronkhorst directly associates with the growing sphere of influence of the Brahmanical ideology.

Greater Magadha and its association with Aryavarta

[edit]

Following the description of Aryavarta in early Brahmanical sources, Bronkhorst notes that the Greater Magadha area was outside Aryavarta, the heartland of Vedic Brahmanism, and proposes that “Greater Magadha” had a distinct culture.[9] According to Bronkhorst, Aryavarta was primarily associated with a single state, the Kuru kingdom. According to Bronkhorst, the various emperors of Magadha had little interest in Brahmanism,[b] and the conquest of the Vedic heartland by the Nanda and Maurya rulers deprived the Brahmins of their patrons, threatening the survival of the Vedic ritual tradition and creating opportunities for Buddhists and Jains to spread their religions outside the confines of Magadha.

According to Bronkhorst, the Brahmins overcame their deprivation of patrons by providing new services and by incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain along with local religious traditions, giving rise to the Hindu synthesis.

Critics have questioned some of Bronkhorst’s assertions.[16] His claim of a sharp cultural divide between east and west was questioned by Konrad Klaus in his 2011 review of “Greater Magadha.”[16][17] Wynne and Witzel questioned the supposed lesser influence of Brahmanisation in early Magadha, or his proposed revision of textual chronology, while also criticising him for overlooking the role of socioeconomic and political developments in shaping new ideological trends.[16][18]

Patrick Olivelle, writing in 1993, is critical of a number of authors who see Śramaṇa seers of Magadha as non-Brahmanical, anti-Brahmanical, or even non-Aryan precursors of later sectarian ascetics. According to Olivelle, these scholars are trying to draw conclusions that far outstrip the available empirical evidence.[19]

In his review of “Greater Magadha,” Alexander Wynne proposed that unorthodox Brahmin thinkers in the eastern gangetic plains developed the ideas that triggered the ascetic and philosophical culture Bronkhorst associates with Greater Magadha.[9]

On the other hand, Geoffrey Samuel, following Thomas Hopkins, also proposed that the Central Gangetic region formed a “distinct but related cultural complex,” as exemplified by the Painted Grey Ware, which did not spread past the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. It was the area of the earliest known rice cultivation in South Asia, and had reached the Chalcolithic when the Aryans first entered northwestern India. According to Hopkins, the Aryan societies and thiseastern Gangetic culture formed two separate sources for the development toward iron-working and urbanisation. The Brahmins of the Aryan, Vedic cultural sphere perceived this eastern, non-Aryan, Jain-Buddhist cultural sphere as wholly different, with a religion fertility and female deities which dominated this area.

Other regional designations

[edit]

The Manusmṛti mentions Brahmavarta as the region between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati in northwest India. The text defines the area as the place where the “good” people are born, the twice-born who adhere to the Vedic dharma, in contrast to the mlecchas, who live outside the Aryan territory and Vedic traditions.[23] The precise location and size of the region has been the subject of academic uncertainty.[24] Some scholars, such as the archaeologists Bridget Allchin and Raymond Allchin, believe the term Brahmavarta to be synonymous with Aryavarta.[25]

Madhyadesa extended from the upper reaches of the Ganges and the Yamuna to the confluence of the two rivers at Prayaga, and was the region where, during the time of the Mahajanapadas, the Kuru kingdom and Pañcāla existed. The entire region is considered sacred in the Hindu mythology as gods and heroes mentioned in the two epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, lived here.[26][27]

Kanyakubja or modern day Kannauj was a central city of Aryavarta and was used as capital-city from 510 CE to 1197 CE under Maukharis, Harshavardhana, Varmans, Pratiharas and Gahadavala dynasty.[28][29][30][31][32]

The Gurjara-Pratihara king in the tenth century was titled the Maharajadhiraja of Aryavarta.[33] Devapala, the emperor of Pala Empire was known to be the Overlord of Aryavarta.[34]

  1. ^ The Sanskrit word ā́rya (आर्य) was originally a cultural term designating those who spoke Vedic Sanskrit and adhered to Vedic cultural norms (including religious rituals and poetry), in contrast to an outsider, or an-ā́rya (‘non-Arya’).By the time of the Buddha (5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of ‘noble’.
  2. ^ In contrast to the Jain legends which developed 900 years later, contemporary Greek evidence states that Chandragupta Maurya, the founder and first emperor of the Maurya Empire and grandfather of Ashoka, was associated with Vedic Brahminism. Chandragupta sponsored Vedic sacrifices and Brahmanical rituals. He also delighted in hunting, an activity not typically associated with the strict non-violence of later sectarian ascetic sects such as Jainism and Buddhism.
  1. ^ Scharfe, Hartmut (1989). Handbuch der Orientalistik: Indien. BRILL. p. 12. ISBN 9004090606.
  2. ^ Agarwal, Vishal: Is there Vedic evidence for the Indo-Aryan Immigration to India
  3. ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 70.
  4. ^ Michael Cook (2014), Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective, Princeton University Press, p.68: “Aryavarta […] is defined by Manu as extending from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas of Central India in the south and from the sea in the west to the sea in the east.”
  5. ^ a b “Wynne on Bronkhorst, ‘Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India’ | H-Net”. networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Norelius, Per-Johan (19 June 2023). Soul and Self in Vedic India. BRILL. p. 459. ISBN 978-90-04-54600-4.
  7. ^ Konrad Klaus (2011), Review of J. Bronkhorst: Greater Magadha, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 161, 216-21, 2011
  8. ^ “Wynne on Bronkhorst, ‘Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India’ | H-Net”. networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  9. ^ Olivelle, Patrick (1993). The Aśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution. Oxford University Press. p. 68-70. ISBN 978-0-19-534478-3 – via Archive.org.
  10. ^ Killingley, Dermot (2007). “Mlecchas, Yavanas and Heathens: Interacting Xenologies in Early Nineteenth-Century Calcutta”. In Franco, Eli; Preisendanz, Karin (eds.). Beyond Orientalism: The Work of Wilhelm Halbfass and Its Impact on Indian and Cross-cultural Studies. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 125. ISBN 978-8-12083-110-0.
  11. ^ Scharfe, Hartmut (1989). The State in Indian Tradition. BRILL. p. 12. ISBN 900-4-09060-6.
  12. ^ Allchin, Bridget; Allchin, Raymond (1982). The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-52128-550-6.
  13. ^ Mukhopadhyay, Mihir Mohan (1984). Sculptures of Ganga-Yamuna Valley. Abhinav Publications. p. 5. ISBN 9788170171898.
  14. ^ Singh, Pitam (2003). Women Legislators in Indian Politics. Concept Publishing Company. p. 62. ISBN 9788180690198.
  15. ^ Hussain jafri, Saiyid Zaheer (2016). Recording the Progress of Indian History. Primus Books. p. 148. ISBN 978-93-80607-28-3.
  16. ^ Wink, Andre (2002). Al-Hind: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries. E.J. Brill. p. 288. ISBN 0-391-04173-8.
  17. ^ Wink, Andre (1989). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest, 11th-13th centuries. E.J. Brill. p. 240. ISBN 90-04-09249-8.
  18. ^ Warder, Anthony Kennedy (1992). Indian Kāvya Literature. Motilal Banarsidas. p. 240. ISBN 978-81-208-0445-6.
  19. ^ Wink, Andre (2021). Al-Hind, Volume 1 Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7th-11th Centuries. E.J. Brill. p. 241. ISBN 978-90-04-48300-2.
  20. ^ André Wink (2002). Al-Hind: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries. BRILL. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8.
  21. ^ D.), Mukhalesura Rahmāna (Ph (1998). Sculpture in the Varendra Research Museum: A Descriptive Catalogue. Varendra Research Museum. pp. XXXV.
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