Traditional History to me is about states, how they build and govern and organize (including key people like kings and ministers) and communicate and prosper and evolve, and their composition, and how the states interact with each other. Cultural and religious influences on the other hand diffuse and spread. The cultural and religious (and ethnic) composition of a state though is relevant to history. What is far more interesting, I think though, is explore how a religion, culture or language evolved and diffused and spread, and the migratory patterns of people, and lessons on human nature taught. Not sure if that is traditionally called history. I will stick to traditional history in this blog.
The
below version of ancient Indian History seems to me to be balanced and
authentic but has a focus on Vijaynagara in the latter part. My perspective of Indian History
tends to be southern India focused. I have been to Hampi when I was a kid. Vijayanagara is
magnificent. Thank my brother for forwarding this to me. It was
educational.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=rD14X3TJjO-lvy3S&v=nlMpxUYKTcU&feature=youtu.be
I don’t
know much of Indus Valley history or Indo Gangetic plains history. My
perspective is southern India focused (primarily kerala, tamil nadu, karnataka, andhra pradesh, telengana, maharashtra - all deccan states). It revolves around Chola's (tamilnadu), Pandya's (tamilnadu), Pallavas (andhra pradesh), Chalukya's (karnataka/maharashtra), Chera's (kerala/Sri Lanka) and Vijayanagara empires (karnataka). Also included are Deccan
sultanates including the Golconda sultanate (telengana), Bijapur sultanate (karnataka), Bidar sultanate (annexed by BIjapur), Ahmadnagar sultanate (maharashtra), Berar sultanate (annexed by ahmadnagar), Bahamani Sultanate (maharashtra), Madurai sultanate (tamil nadu) and the Mysore sultanate under Hyder Ali and Tipu sultan (karnataka). Also included are the Maratha empire (shivaji - Maharashtra), the Wadiyar's of Mysore, and of
course the British/Portuguese. Would like to learn more about the kingdoms of
Travancore and Cochin (kerala). You can google each of these for more information if interested.
I was taught practically nothing about south Indian history in school. What I learnt I picked up by myself. My Mother is from Tamil Nadu/Kerela. My Father is from Karnataka. So obviously Southern history is more interesting to me. I don't think of India as a single unit during those times. India the nation did not exist then.
I was taught quite a bit of European history and geography in my Scottish school. Not a great
deal of Indian history or geography (as far as I recall). The part of
Indian history the school emphasized were the Moghuls - Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Birbal, Shah
Jahan, Aurangzeb, Jahangir, etc. and was northern India focused in general.
Babur was consequential since he came to India (1526) and settled and carved out the Moghul empire (the sultanate of Delhi however was established much earlier in 1211 by Iltutmish), but the
rest of them seem to be inconsequential considering the great arc of History (Aurangzeb though had significant victories in the deccan). My school
did not really talk about the Muslim rulers actually stopping Genghis khan and his successors and the devastation the Mongols would have brought otherwise to northern India. The Mongols destroyed Muslim civilization everywhere else in Central
Asia, Middle East, and Europe. Also, I believe the Mongols killed
millions of Chinese. In total Mongols are estimated to have killed over 30 million people. This seems to me to be a very important piece of data that
should have been emphasized.
Not sure if I am really that interested though in the history of Indus Valley and Indo-Gangetic plains to be honest. What is clear is there was a big enough hole in the form of the Khyber Pass and Golan pass for invaders to come as they please, and plunder on a regular basis and disappear. Babur, however, came to stay.
All the things happening in northern India was largely separate from southern India and Deccan History (with the exception of Maharashtra). The key Delhi sultanate figure that plays an important role in southern Indian History is Mohammad bin Tughluq who foraged into the Deccan areas. Tughluq moved his capital to Devagiri in Maharashtra from Delhi at considerable expense for some time (about 8 years) and laid down the seeds for the future springing up of a number of independent sultanates in the deccan. Eventually he retreated and moved his capital back to Delhi. The other major attack was by Aurangzeb (Moghul) much later when he defeated a number of sultanates in the north deccan. The Maratha empire also had many battles with the moguls (and Deccan sultanates).
Now coming back to the video. What the
video above said that I found interesting is a very long time ago, the very initial
original people who came to India and settled were from east Africa.
Also
interesting was that millions of years ago India separated from Africa of which
it was a part and the chunk drifted to where it is today and banged into
Asia where the Himalayas now stand.
Here is a video on its journey from Africa to Asia: https://youtu.be/vMehbbPpIL4?si=i8ny-I1ZS2o1GwA7
Also
interesting is that Sanskrit has a European root along with Latin, English,
Urdu and Hindi. The southern languages have a very different origin.
Another
interesting thing the video talked about is the Muslim leaders were by and
large pragmatic and avoided messing around with the religious beliefs of
their subjects. Hindus continued to worship as they wanted.
Above
are things I did not know.
The
video also got right that the Vedas/Upanishads believe in one God (Brahman)
with many manifestations and aspects just like a prism splits out white
light into many colors. The key ones are shiva (creator/destroyer) in the
celestial dance pose (the dance symbolizes what naturally progresses in the
universe from birth to death) and Vishnu (preserver). Both aspects of Brahman. I
am gratified that the video is correct in its essence on this.
Let me
know your thoughts if any in the comment section. My knowledge of ancient Indian history is limited. This blog lays down a whole lot of breadcrumbs for you to google and learn more by yourself if interested.
Comments