Chapter 3: India and the Indian Ocean Basin

India influenced the development of a larger cultural zone in south and southeast Asia

China and India played different roles in their respective spheres of influence

China was the dominant power even though it didn’t always exercise their power over neighboring countries

South and southeast Asia emerged with no centralized imperial authority like the Song and Tang dynasty

India had multiple states that were organized in large regional kingdoms

no regional kingdom was able to extend its authority to all parts of India

Even though India was politically disunited it had a distinct society because of their powerful social and cultural traditions

the caste system and the Hindi religion shaped the region of Asia in the first millennium

Beginning of 7th century, Islam began to attract a popular following and in the 11th century Islam had became a powerful influence on Indian culture and society

Indian traditions helped to shape a larger cultural zone extending to the mainlands and islands of southeast Asia

In south east Asia ruling classes adopted to Indian forms of political organizations and techniques of statecraft

Indian merchants spread Hindu and Buddhist faiths to southeast Asia where it attracted the interest of elites

Indian merchants also helped introduce Islam to southeast Asia

While India traditions spread to southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean basin began to move toward economic integration in this era

Areas on the border of the Indian ocean had distinct political and cultural traditions they inherited from the past

• Innovations in martime technology

• development of sea lanes

• building of port cities enabled people living around the Indian ocean to trade and communicate more

people from east Africa to southeast Asia participated in economic, commercial and cultural life of the Indian Ocean basin

Islamic and Hindu Kingdoms

like the Han and romans, the Gupta dynasty came under severe threat from nomadic invaders

4th-5th century- Gupta rulers resisted the pressures and preserved order throughout the Indian subcontinent

451- White Huns (Hephtalites) attacked India and disrupted the Gupta administration

mid 6th century- Gupta state collapsed and political authority went to invaders, local allies of Gupta and independent regional power brokers

India was divided from the fall of the Gupta until the Turk-Mongols(Mughals) extended their authority

The Quest for centralized Imperial Rule

South and north India had different political trajectories after the fall of the Gupta

North India

North India became chaotic with local states contesting for power

It became a territory of tension and local states fought for power constantly

Nomadic Turks from central Asia took advantage on the chaos to go across the Khyber Pass and forced their way into India

The found themselves a place in the caste system and got absorbed into the indian society

The absorption of the Turks took a long time and caused a long period of disruption in north india

Harsha

After the collapse of the Gupta a new kingdom didn’t form for a while

In the first half of the 7th century king Harsha (reigned 606-648) temporary unified north india

He came to power in the lower Ganges Valley at the age of 16 and led his army throughout northern india

He also extended his influence to Himalayan states and exchanged a series of embassies with Emperor Tang Taizong of China

He had a reputation of:

• piety

• tolerance

• scholarship

He was a Buddhist but looked kindly on other faiths

Achievements of Harsha

• built hospitals

• provided free medical care for his subjects

• distributed wealth to his subjects

• generously patronized scholars

• wrote three plays

Collapse of Harsha’s Kingdom

Harsha wasn’t able to permanently centralize north India because local rulers had already established a very secure authority before Harsha overcame them

He was able to maintain power by traveling throughout his nation constantly to solidify alliances with the local rulers and kept the nation together because of his forceful personality and constant attention to political affairs

He was a victim of an assassination and since he didn’t have an heir his empire immediately disintegrated

Introduction of Islam to Northern India

The Conquest of Sind

Other than the constant fight for power, Northern India also experienced the introduction of islam and the establishment of Islamic states

Islam was introduced in through several routes

1. Military

Islam entered India via military in in the mid 7th century before the establishment of the Ummayad Caliphate but later on the Sind passed into the hands of the Abbasid caliphs just like Dar al-Islam

In 711 there was an expedition that conquered Sind and the Indus River Valley in northeast India

The Sind stood at the border of the Islamic world

Most of the Sind population were Hindu, Buddhist or Parsee and Hindu was the dominant religion

Arab administrators gave local elites opportunities to reassert Hindu authority in most of Sind but the region stayed under the jurisdiction of the caliphs until the collapse of the Abbasid empire in 1258

2. Merchants

Merchants took the muslim religion o coastal regions of both north and south India and have been visiting their ports even before Muhammad

Muslims dominated trade and transportation networks between India and the western lands and formed communities in all major cities of coastal India. For example they congregated in the port city of Cambay

Merchants played an important role in Indian business and commercial life

They married local women and found a place for them in the Indian society

3. Migrants

The migrations and invasions of Turkic speaking people from central Asia also spread Islam through northern India

In the 10th century Turkish groups had converted to Islam through the Abbasid caliphate and some entered the realm as mercenary soldiers some migrated to Byzantine, Anatolia and others to Afghanistan where they established an Islamic state

Rajput Kingdoms

The Rajput kingdom was made from many decentralized clans that were at war with each other

The constant conflict between the clans became an obstacle for the spread of Islam in northern India

Mahmud of Ghazni

Mahmud of Ghazni was a leader of a Turkic-Iranian state in Afghanistan and lead expeditions into India taking advantage of civil conflicts

Achievements and descriptions of Ghazni

• He was a patron of the arts who built Ghazni into a refined capital

• He supported historians, mathematicians and literary figures

• He was determined and spent most of his time in the field with his army

• Ghazni and his troops destroyed sites associated with Buddhist and Hindu faiths like temples and accelerated the decline of Buddhism

Ghazni was more interested in stealing the wealth stored in Indian temples compared to actually ruling India and his raids did not encourage Indians to convert to Islam

The Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526)

Mahmud’s successors had a more systematic campaign to conquer north India

By the 13th century, they had conquered most of the Hindu kingdoms in north India and established an Islamic state called the sultanate of Delhi

They cleverly chose there capital so they’d have access from Punjab to the Ganges Valley

Achievements of the sultanate

• They had a huge army and were considered to be one of the most prominent state in the Islamic world

• They built mosques, shrines and fortresses

• They were patrons of the arts and literature

• The sultans played a large role in the establishment of Islam in the Bengal region

At some point the sultanate conquered a region in western India called Gujarat and destroyed the temple of Gujarat

The authority of the sultans didn’t extend far beyond Delhi and they often organized raids in the Deccan region of south India

The sultanate did’t have a permanent bureaucracy or administrative system

The sultanate had a thin cover of Islamic political and military authority in northern India and depended on the goodwill of Hindu kings to carry out their policies

Out of the 35 sultans 19 were assassinated

The Hindu Kingdoms of Southern India

Even though southern India was politically divided they escaped invasions and chronic wars

Most Hindu rulers ruled over small and loosely administered states and competitions resulted in wars but they weren't very frequent and less damaging

The Chola Kingdom (850-1267)

There were two official kingdoms that expanded enough to rule much of southern India

Chola Kingdom located in the deep south ruled the coast for more than 4 centuries and at its peak conquered Ceylon and parts of southeast Asia

The Chola was a Hindu empire and rejected Buddhism and Jainism

The chola rulers didn’t have a tightly centralized state but dominated the waters from the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea

The kingdom continued temple building traditions from previous dynasties and influenced the construction of Hindu temples in Indonesia

The Chola kingdom built the Thanjavur temple as a symbol of their power

The Chola gave local institutions the right to make decisions for themselves as long as they maintained order and paid taxes to them on time

The Chola cared more about their domination of trade in the Indian Ocean Basin compared to showing interest in building a powerful state

The kingdom started to decline in the 12th century partly because of their loose structure

The Chola were removed from Ceylon and revolts in southern India reduced the size of the kingdom

The Chola then reverted their status to a regional kingdom like many in southern India

Imperial Pandyas (1216-1345)

The ruler Maravarman Sundara I sent the Chola king Kulothunga III into exile which started conflicts and ultimately ended the Chola dynasty

The pandyas was located in the southern part of India and Sri Lanka

Bhakti Movement- a movement in medieval Hinduism that panned to make changes to the religion by challenging the Caste system and adopting a method of devotion to achieve salvation

Followers of this movement had a personal devotion to a particular deity

Temple centered Hinduism played a major role in the Bhakti movement

The Bhakti movement emphasized music, dance, poetry and ritual as a way to directly unite with the divine

The Kingdom of Vijayanagar (1336-1646)

The Vijayanagar kingdom was based in northern Deccan and was the second state that dominated southern India

The Kingdom of Vijayanagar was founded because the Sultanate of Delhi wanted to expand their rule to southern India and sent two brothers, Harihara and Bukka to the south

Harihara and Bukka took the opportunity to establish themselves as independent rulers and In 1336 they renounced Islam, returned to Hindu and established the independent empire of Vijayanagar meaning city of victory

The Vijayanagar empire had an agricultural economy but controlled over 300 ports

The empire was Hindu but tolerant to all religions and the Bhakti movement was active during the empire

Rulers of the Vijayanagar empire were Hindu but eventually adopted Islamic political traditions

The creation of the empire didn’t lead to hostilities between the Muslims and Hindus

Muslim merchants still traded with untouched parts of southern India

The Vijayanagar kingdom was dominant until 1565 when it fell to an alliance of Muslim kingdoms

The empire also faced invasions from the north before it fell

Even though the kingdom is north and south India weren’t powerful enough to organize the whole Indian subcontinent, but trade, social structures and inherited cultural traditions flourished in India

Production and Trade in Indian Ocean Basin

Trade forged links between the various regions of the subcontinent and fostered economic development in southern India

Trade also created links between India and distant lands because merchants and manufacturers used the Indian ocean basin as a vast zone of communication and exchange

The increase in trade changed the India but the the Caste system continued to serve as the most important method of organization for the Indian society

Agriculture in the Monsoon World

The Monsoons

The rhythms of monsoons made irrigation essential for the maintenance of a large agricultural society

In the spring and summer India’s rainfall comes from the moist winds from southwest and in fall and winter dry winds flow from northeast

India needed a solid source of water throughout the year to avoid drought and famine

Irrigation Systems

Irrigation systems were crucial in southern India because it was an arid land without rivers that can serve as water resources

Dams, Reservoirs, Canals, wells, tunnels were built in large numbers and projects of such magnitude required a lot of investments of human energy

Population growth

The result of the increase in agriculture was a rapid increase in the subcontinents population

600C.E → 53mil

800C.E → 64mil

1000C.E → 79mil

1500C.E → 105mil

Urbanization

The increase in population encouraged the concentration of people in cities

In the highest point of the sultanate of Delhi, the capital city had a population of 400K

Cities in souther India grew very fast as a result of the region being very agricultural productivity

Trade and the Economic Development of Southern India

The political fragmentation between the different states in India didn’t prevent trade

As the population of India grew so did the opportunities for specialization which increased trade

Internal Trade

Most of the rations in the Indian subcontinent were self-sufficient in staple foods but not materials like iron, copper, salt, pepper and spices

Iron came mostly from the Ganges river valley near Bengal and copper came from the Deccan Plateau

Salt came from the coastal regions of India and pepper came from southern India

Pepper, saffron, rice and sugar were popular items to trade because it didn’t grow very well in northern India

The main beneficials of this trade were Ceylon and southern India where they experienced rapid economic development because northern India was going through invasions and conflicts

The Chola empire had provided stability in the south and its expansion into southeast Asia opened markets for Indian merchants and producers

As trade increased so did the number of people that lived in coastal cities like Calicut and Quilon

Temples and Society

The Chola empire weren’t very restrictive towards their subjects and villages organized their own affairs

Roles of temples in Southern India

• the economic, agricultural and social centers

• coordinated irrigation

• maintained and distributed surplus in times of need

• provided schooling for boys

• kept order in the village by collecting and delivering tax receipts to Chola authorities

• served as bankers and made loans and investments which promoted economic development

Temple authorities had a close relationship with leaders of merchant guilds and the guilds made gifts of land and money to said temples which made them grow

Cross Cultural Trade in the Indian Ocean Basin

Indian merchants had been engaging in trans-regional mar-time trade since the first silk road era but large ships and a better commercial organization helped increase the surge in the trade in the Indian Ocean Basin

Dhows and Junks

Mariners recognized the rhythms of monsoons and overtime built larger ships that allowed them to leave the coasts behind and go through the blue waters of the Indian Oceans

Dhows- Indian and Persian ships that weighted around 100-104 tons that sailed and traded throughout the Indian Ocean Basin

Junks- Ships used by merchants and others in the seas off China and Southeast Asia to carry commercial cargo

As large ship became more common in trade and mansoons became predictable, merchants sailed directly across the Arabian sea and Bay of Bengal without spending time at ports waiting for the winds to change

Emporia

Because India was at the center of the Indian Ocean Basin, it became the site of Emporia- commercial establishments that specialize in services on a large scale

Merchants also built emporia’s outside of India but because of their central location Indian ports became the principal of clearing houses of trade and became cosmopolitan centers

The Indian Ocean Basin made up a network of martime silk roads that became a web of transportation, communication and exchange for people in much of Afro-Euroasia

Specialized Production

As trade in the Indian Ocean Basin increased, lands around the ocean started to engage in specialized production

Indians produced cotton textiles, sugar, leather tanning, stone craving, carpet staining, iron and steel

China produced silk, porcelain, and lacquerware

Southeast Asia produced spices, incense, horses

Southwest Asia made dates

East Africa contributed gold, ivory and slaves

Trans-regional trade during this time shaped the economic, political and social structures of states and cultures

The Kingdom of Axum

The kingdom of Axum was founded in northern Ethiopia in the 1st century

The kingdom went through a lot of territorial expansions which included most of modern day Ethiopia, Yemen and South Arabia

The Kingdom also adopted Christianity and even though Arab conquerors attempted to bring it into Islam, the nation stayed Christian

Axumites maintained commercial ties with distant lands, traded regularly with Muslim merchants and sailed for India and southeast Asia

Axum over time had the most prominent port in east Africa ,Adulis

Even though Axum was challenged by muslim forces, it was able to maintain power and independence largely because of its participation in trading networks in the Indian Ocean Basin

Caste and Society

Caste and Migration

Caste and Social Change

Expansion of the Caste System

Religious Developments in South Asia

India went through a lot of transformations in the fist millennium and Jainism and Buddhism lost much of their following but they didn’t fully disappear

Hindu and Islamic traditions dominated the cultural and religious life of India

Hinduism and Islam were very different especially when it came to the number of gods in their religions but both had large followings throughout the subcontinent

Hinduism was dominant in the south and Islam in the North

The Increasing popularity of Hinduism

Near the end of the first millennium Buddhism bloomed in east, central and southeast Asia

Like Buddhism, both Hinduism and Islam promised salvation to their followers and gradually attracted Buddhists into conversion

The invasions from the nomadic Turks helped in the decline of Buddhism because they destroyed Buddhist shrines

Muslims then overran Buddhist cities and either killed or exiled Buddhist monks and Buddhist philosophers and Buddhism became a minor religion in the land of its birth

Vishnu and Shiva

The decline of Buddhism benefited Hinduism

One of the reasons for the increase in Hinduism was the growth in people that were devoted to Vishnu a Hindu god that was known as the preserver of the world and Shiva a god associated with fertility and destruction

Devotional Cults

Vishnu and Shiva became especially popular in southern India where people went to great lengths to honor their gods

There was a rise in the worship of Shiva as the lord of dances

Vishnu and Shiva eventually became popular among Hindus in northern as well as southern India

Shankara

The significance of Hinduism also extended beyond its popular region

Shankara- a southern Indian and devout follower of Shiva made it his goal to digest all sacred Hindu writings and harmonize them into a single system of thought

Shankara’s beliefs

• the physical world was an illusion and ultimate reality was found beyond physical senses

• only disciplined logical thinking would make us understand ultimate reality

Ramanuja

Ramanuja- a south Indian and devout follower of Vishnu challenged Shankara’s insistence on logic

Ramanuja’s beliefs were influenced by devotional cults

Ramanuja’s beliefs

• intellectual understanding of reality was less important that the personal connection between a person and the deity

• genuine bliss comes from salvation and connections between people and gods

• placing themselves in the hands of Vishnu will make them win the god’s grace

Ramanuja’s thought serves as the philosophical foundation for Hindu popular religion

Islam and Its Appeal

Islam didn’t attract Indians immediately but was more gradually accepted in merchant communities

In Indian lands that were conquered by Muslims political and military positions were reserved for Arabs, Persians and Turks so conquerors had little incentive to convert to Islam

Conversion to Islam

Many Indians did convert to Islam overtime in hopes of improving their positions in society

Hindus of lower castes hoped to escape discrimination by joining Isalm but their conversion did’t affect their social and economic roles

Sufis

The most effective agents in converting Hindus to Islam were Sufi Mystics

Sufis were mystics who emphasized an emotional devotion to Allah more than the strict following of the rules

They didn’t insist on every rules in their doctrine and sometimes permitted their followers to observe rituals that weren’t recognized by the Islamic faith

Because of Sufis Indian Islam emphasized piety and devotion like Hinduism

Even though Islam and Hinduism were very different religions they both encouraged similar spiritual values

The Bhakti Movement

The gap between Hinduism and Islam was narrowed because both religions drew on long established and long observed traditions

Even more that Sufis the Bhakti movement ,which was a spiritual movement that attempted to rise above the differences between Hinduism and Islam, encouraged the spread of Islam

The movement originated in the south and as Bhakti leaders moved north they became attracted to certain Islamic values like monotheism and equality

Guru Kabir

The Bhakti movement then rejected exclusive features of both Hinduism and Islam

Guru Kabir(1440-1518) was a blind weaver and famous Bhakti teacher that taught that Shiva, Vishnu and Allah were different forms of one god

The Bhakti movement didn’t succeed in uniting Hinduism and Islam but prompted to build bridges between India’s social and cultural communities

Indian Social and Political Influence in Southeast Asia

Just as how China was the center of the east Asian society, India was the center of the south and southeast Asia

For a millennium southeast Asian people adopted Indian political structures and religions even though Indian armed forces rarely ventured into the region

Merchants introduced Buddhism, Hinduism and Indian forms of political organization to southeast India then Islam attracted a bunch of following and became a permanent feature in the region

The states of Southeast Asia

Indian Influence in southeast Asia

Indian merchants had visited the mainlands of southeast asia as early as 500BC and traded with them often

Southeast rulers got aquanted with Indian political and cultural traditions and without giving up their own traditions they borrowed Indian forms of governance and religious faiths

They adopted Kingship and regional kings surrounded themselves with courts and administrators

They also sponsored the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism into their courts

They didn’t adopt the caste system

Funan

Funan was the first known state that showed Indian Influence

Dominated parts of cambodia, vietnam and the mekong river

The rulers gained wealth by controlling the trade between east and south Asia and used it to build irrigation systems

They adopted kingship and the bureaucrat advisors system

Funan was weakened by internat power struggles and other nations took that as an opportunity to move down to their territory and settle

Then their irrigation system failed leading to the collapse of the kingdom

Srivijaya(670-1025)

The fall of the Funan passes the leadership into the kingdom of Srivijaya which was based on the Island of Sumatra

The kings built powerful navies and controlled the commerce in southeast Asian waters