Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography (32 page)

Even as I was writing this book, the Indian government came up with a proposal to re-introduce the cheetah into the country from Africa. Furious debates rage on whether or not the African and Asian cheetahs belong to the same species. There are even more furious debates about mining. The primordial forests of Gondwana are now rich coal fields in Jharkhand. India’s economic expansion is hungry for energy and covets the coal that lies below the beautiful, rolling hills of the state. No matter which side one takes in the debate, my tour of the coal mines of Hazaribagh suggested that the extraction of resources needs to be done in a way that significantly reduces the social and environmental costs of this activity. These natural resources are not renewable and we must have good reason for exploiting them today rather than leaving them for future generations.

We live in a time of massive change—mass urbanization, climate change, globalization, and a shifting global order. India has seen all this before, but the human inability to learn from the past is sometimes astounding. I write these lines in
Varanasi as I watch the evening ‘aarati’ on the ancient ghats along the Ganga. The priests chant the glories of the great river and seek her blessings, but the river is clearly dying from the assaults of human interference and thoughtless civil engineering. Perhaps the Harappans chanted hymns extolling the glories of the Saraswati as they impotently watched the river dry up. Perhaps they desperately invoked Indra to break the dams and let the waters flow again.

As we have seen, despite all this change, Indians have retained an intuitive memory of their civilization. It continues to influence Indian attitudes in surprising ways. A lot can be discerned about a people from the way they remember their darkest hour. When New York observes an anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, there is a sombre service and speeches by leading political figures. Contrast that with how Mumbai commemorated the terrorist attacks of 26 November 2008. A day after the fourth anniversary, a flash mob of 200 young boys and girls suddenly appeared in the middle of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal, a busy train station that had witnessed one of the massacres on that night of horror. The flash mob then proceeded to dance for five minutes to a popular Bollywood number
Rang de Basanti
(roughly translates as ‘The Colour of Sacrifice’). Then, when the music stopped, the mob disappeared into the crowd. In any other country this would have been considered sacrilege but in India it was widely seen as appropriate. The whole episode was filmed and became an instant hit on the Internet. But, why do Indians remember a horrible event by dancing?

The key to resolving the paradox is to realize that Indians view history not in political but in civilizational terms. When
Americans raise their flag at the 9/11 sites, they reaffirm the resilience of their nation state. When Indians dance at the site of the 26/11 massacre, they celebrate the triumph of their civilization.

The history of India’s geography and civilization reminds us of the insignificance of each generation in the vastness of time. The greatest of India’s monarchs and thinkers too felt it. So they left behind their stories and thoughts in ballads, folk-tales, epics and inscriptions. Even if these memories are not always literally true, what matters is that they carry on the essence of India’s civilization. On the island of Mauritius, descendants of Indian immigrants have transferred their memories of the river Ganga to a lake, Ganga Talao, that they now hold as sacred. A very long time ago, their distant ancestors would have similarly transferred the memory of the Saraswati to the Ganga. Geography is not just about the physical terrain, but also about the meaning that we attribute to it. Thus, the Saraswati flows, invisibly, at Allahabad.

This book is about the history of India’s geography although I do not have any formal training as either a historian or as a geographer. Yet, as I wrote this book, it felt like I have been preparing for it for all my adult life. Ideas, facts and conversations that I seem to have hidden away somewhere in my head all came tumbling out as I wrote out the chapters one by one. My profession as an economist, my love of old maps and wildlife, my studies of urban habitats and my many travels through India and South-East Asia began to slowly fit together into a mosaic.

Still, it was no easy journey. I read through ancient religious texts, the writings of medieval travellers and scores of academic papers on seemingly unrelated and arcane topics. Often it took several readings before I could make sense of them, but I struggled on because, as my family and friends will attest, the topic had become an obsession. It drove me eventually to take time off from my professional career to travel around India for two and half years to collect material. Indeed, I discovered that many of the texts make sense only if one has actually visited the places to which they refer. I would probably have kept going if my editors at Penguin had not simply taken the draft away from me.

Given the eclectic nature of this book, it could not have been written without the advice and support of many people. Let me begin by thanking Ravi Singh and Michel Danino, who were ready with advice and encouragement at every stage of the book. This book benefitted greatly from their extensive collections of papers and books. I am grateful to Divyabhanusinh Chavda, Vidula Jayaswal, R.S. Bisht, Pratik Bhatnagar, Mahesh Rangarajan, Partha Majumdar, Manoshi Lahiri, Susheel Menon, Ramachandra Guha, Jose Dominic, Abdul Hakim and Lalji Singh for their many suggestions. Let me also thank the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussourie), the Survey of India (Dehradun), the World-Wide Fund for Nature, the Archaeological Survey of India, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, The Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Vivekananda Kendra and the Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore.

I enjoyed the hospitality of many kind hosts on my travels. Let me take this opportunity to thank Suresh Neotia, Upendra Gupta, Sajjan and Sangita Jindal, Dushyant Singh, Abhijit Pandit, Sheila Nair, Maharaj Gaj Singh, Ranjit Barthakur, Shree Raman, Vineet Saran and Praveen Rengaraj. My dear friends Jayant Sinha, Peter Ruprecht, Ashish Goyal, Siddharth Yog and Arvind Sethi read drafts at different stages and gave me useful insights on style and readability.

Of course, the book would not have been possible without the diligence and enthusiasm of my editors Udayan Mitra and Ameya Nagarajan. It was a pleasure working with them. I am also grateful for the support of my extended family, particularly my father, with whom I continue to debate the meaning of the
Rig Veda
. Lastly, I wish to thank my wife Smita who put
her life on hold for almost three years, accompanied me on my travels and patiently heard me read out the very first draft of each chapter.

1.
The 2011 tiger census
came up with a count of 1706. This is up from 1411 from the 2007 census. It is
unclear if the increase is due to better conservation or better counting.

2.
The Gayatri Mantra is
one of the most popular hymns in the Hindu tradition. It is contained in the Rig
Veda and has been translated and interpreted by many scholars. Here is my attempt:
‘As you light up the Heavens and the Earth, O Radiant Sun, So light up my
Mind and Soul’.

3.
India, A History
, John Keay. HarperCollins, 2001.

4.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

1.
‘The Making
and Unmaking of a Supercontinent: Rodinia Revisited’, Joseph Meert and
Trond H. Torsvik.
Tectonophysics
, vol. 375, November 2003.

2.
The story of the siege
of Delhi is fascinating. The interested reader should read
The Last Mughal
by William Dalrymple. Penguin Viking, 2006.

3.
‘Study on
Restoration of Dying Lakes: Case study on Balsamand Lake in Jodhpur’,
published by The Sustainable Planet Institute and AFPRO, February, 2010.

4.
There was probably an
intermediate but short-lived super-continent called Pannotia prior to the formation
of Pangea.

5.
‘The
biogeographic and tectonic history of India’, John Briggs.
Journal of
Biogeography
, 2003.

6.
‘Bones to
Pick’, Uday Mahurkar.
India Today
, 8 November 2010.

7.
‘Fossil find
in Gujarat tweaks India’s breakaway story’,
The Indian
Express
, 27 October 2010; ‘The first keroplatid species from the
Lower Eocene amber of Vastan, Gujarat, India’, Monica Kraemer and Neal
Evenhuis. Zootaxa, 2008.

8.
It appears that India
was not entirely ecologically isolated during its northward drift. John Briggs has
found that India still received some new mainland species during the period. The
process is not yet entirely understood. ‘The biogeographic and tectonic
history of India’, John Briggs. Journal of Biogeography, 2003.

9.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science /nature/news/article_1069908.php/Mammoth_genes_resemble_those_of_Asian_elephant_scientists

10.
‘World’s most ancient race traced in DNA study’, Steve
Connor.
The Independent
, 1 May 2009.

11.
‘Major
genomic mitochondrial lineages delineate early human expansions’, Nicole
Maca-Meyer et al.
BMC Genetics
, 2001.

12.
There may have been
another related group that struck north towards the Levant. It is unclear if this
group made a separate crossing from Africa via the Sinai or split from the original
band soon after the first crossing.

13.
We have learnt a lot
in recent decades about the early migrations of modern humans from archaeology and
genetic data. However, it is still an evolving area of research, and there is a
confusing and, sometimes, contradictory array of research. For a good survey of the
material read
The Incredible Human Journey
, Alice Roberts. Bloomsbury,
2009;
Out of Eden: Peopling of the World
, Stephen Oppenheimer. C&R,
2003.

14.
The Circulation of the Persian Gulf
, J. Kampf and M. Sadrinasab, Ocean
Science Discussions, 2005.
http://www.ocean-scidiscuss.net/2/129/2005/osd-2-129-2005

15.
There is
controversial new research that, during this period, modern humans may have even
mated with Neanderthals. The Neanderthals were a closely related but parallel
species and it was long considered that they left behind no descendants. However,
new research by Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Santa Cruz,
suggests that they have left behind tiny traces of their genes amongst us. While I
am not entirely convinced by the study, it is strange to think that many of us may
not be ‘pure’ modern humans! See:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18869-neanderthal-genome-reveals-interbreeding-with-humans.xhtml?full=true

16.
Comment by K.K.
Abu-Amero et al. in ‘New Light on Human Pre-History in the Arabo-Persian
Gulf Oasis’, Jeffrey Rose.
Current Anthropology
, December
2010.

17.
‘Reconstructing Indian-Australian phylogenetic link’, Satish
Kumar et al.
BMC Evolutionary Biology
, July 2009.

18.
The Story of India
, Michael Wood, BBC Worldwide, 2008.

19.
‘Shoreline
Reconstructions for the Persian Gulf since the last Glacial Maximum’, Kurt
Lambeck.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters
, ANU, 1996.

20.
‘New Light
on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis’, Jeffrey Rose.
Current Anthropology
, December, 2010.

21.
‘Recent
Marine Archaeological Finds in Khambat, Gujarat’, S. Kathiroli et. al.
Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology
, 2004.

22.
Guns, Germs, and Steel
, Jared Diamond, Vintage, 2005.

23.
Readers should
recognize that genetics is a young science and still evolving. In addition,
subsequent migrations have obscured many of the markers of the original migrations.
Therefore, the schematic framewords discussed in this section is at best a broad
description. The reality would have been far more messy, with groups and sub-groups
going back and forth and interbreeding with yet other groups.

24.
‘Polarity
and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both
Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central
Asian Pastoralists’, Sengupta et al,
The American Journal of Human
Genetics
, February 2006.

25.
‘Reconstructing Indian Population History’, David Reich et al.,
Nature
, September 2009.

26.
Geneticist
Thangarajan, one of the co-authors of the study, said in a press interview that the
ASI group may date to 60,000 years ago and the ANI to 40,000. So, we are dealing
with very old populations.

27.
The genetic
sub-groups are named by adding letters or alphabets to a lineage. So, R1a1 is a
subgroup derived from R1a that in turn is derived from R1 and so on.

28.
‘Separating
the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup
R1a’, Peter Underhill et al.,
European Journal of Human Genetics
,
2010.

29.
‘A
prehistory of Indian Y Chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios’,
Sanghamitra Sahoo et al, University of Cambridge, November 2005.

30.
‘A
prehistory of Indian Y Chromosomes: Evaluating demic diffusion scenarios’,
Sanghamitra Sahoo et al. The National Academy of Sciences, USA, 2006.

31.
‘Mystery of
Our Origins’, Dr. Lalji Singh,
NAAS News
,
October–November 2009.

32.
I collated material
from various sources but the reader could use ‘Separating the post-Glacial
coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes with reference to R1a’,
Underhill et al.,
European Journal of Human Genetics,
2009: ‘The
Indian origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1 substantiates the autochthonous origin of
Brahmins and the caste system’, S. Sharma et al.,
Journal of Human
Genetics
, January 2009; ‘The Genetic Heritage of the Earliest
Settlers Persists Both in Indian Tribal and Caste Populations’, Kivisild
et al,
American Journal of Human Genetics,
2003.

33.
‘The Indian
origin of paternal haplogroup R1a1 substantiates the autochthonous origin of
Brahmins and the caste system’, S. Sharma et al.,
Journal of Human
Genetics
, January 2009.

34.
It is possible that
the varna framework was no more than an intellectual effort to understand and
rationalize the bubbling milieu of jatis. Scholarship based purely on texts has
allowed the tail to wag the dog.

1.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

2.
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
, Upinder Singh. Pearson,
2009.

3.
Discussions at
international seminar on ‘How Deep are the Roots of Indian
Civilization?’, Delhi, 25–27 November 2010.

4.
Beyond the Three Seas: Travellers’ Tales of Mughal India
, (ed.)
Michael Fischer. Random House India, 2007.

5.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

6.
India: A History
, John Keay. HarperCollins, 2000.

7.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

8.
The Penguin History of Early India
, Romila Thapar. Penguin, 2002

9.
The Penguin History of Early India
, Romila Thapar. Penguin, 2002

10.
The Saraswati Flows On: The Continuity of Indian Culture
, B.B. Lal. ABI.
New Delhi, 2002.

11.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

12.
Indo-Aryan Origins and Other Vedic Issues
, Nicholas Kazanas. Aditya
Prakashan, 2009.

13.
The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
, Edwin Bryant. Oxford University
Press, 2001.

14.
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
, Upinder Singh. Pearson,
2009.

15.
It can even be argued
that Dasa refers to the Daha tribes of north-eastern Iran.

16.
The words
‘krishna ayas’, black bronze, may not mean iron. In that case,
even the Atharva Veda is ignorant of iron and we can date the Vedas even earlier, in
the third millennium.

17.
‘Beginnings
of agriculture in the Vindhya–Ganga Region’, Radha Kant Verma,
Chapter 3 in
History of Science Philosophy and Culture in Indian
Civilization
, (ed.) D.P. Chattopadhyay, Centre for Studies in
Civilizations, 2008. Also in
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
,
Upinder Singh, Pearson, 2009.

18.
‘The Horse
and the Aryan Debate’, Michel Danino,
Journal of Indian History and
Culture
, September 2006.

19.
Hymn LXI, Book VI,
Rig Veda calls the Saraswati ‘seven-sistered, sprung from three fold
source’.

20.
The Lost River: On the Trail of the Sarasvati
, Michel Danino. Penguin,
2010.

21.
http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals /species_info.php?id=65
,
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/41756/0

22.
Rig Veda Hymn LXIV of
Book X describes the wider Vedic landscape and includes the Saraswati, the Sarayu
and the Indus. It speaks of forests, mountains, ‘tribes of varied
sort’ and, most interestingly, of ‘thrice-seven wandering
rivers’. The ‘thrice-seven’ rivers are mentioned in
several other hymns. One does not have to literally take this to mean twenty-one
rivers but the Sapta-Sindhu is obviously a sub-set of the overall Vedic
landscape.

23.
Rig Veda, Book VII,
Hymn XXXVI, Stanza 6.

24.
See Mandala 7 of the
Rig Veda (there are many translations but one can use
The Hymns of the Rigveda
VI
, (trans.) Ralph Griffith, 1896—
http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/griffith.pdf)
.

25.
The Bharatas are also
referred to as the Trtsu in the Rig Veda.

26.
Panini was a
grammarian from around the fifth century BC. In an explanation of grammatical forms,
he states that saying,
‘Eastern Bharatas’ is
superfluous as everyone knows that the Bharatas are an eastern tribe. Of course,
Panini lived many centuries after the Rig Veda but we have no reason to disbelieve
him as his statement agrees with the other circumstantial evidence.

27.
A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India
, Upinder Singh. Pearson,
2009. Also see Mandala 7 of the Rig Veda (use
The Hymns of the Rig Veda VI
,
(trans.) Ralph Griffith, 1896.
http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/griffith.pdf)
.

28.
The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
, Edwin Bryant. Oxford University
Press (OUP), 2001.

29.
This is how the term
‘Hindu’ came to mean Indians and eventually gave its name to the
country’s dominant religion.

30.
http://www.yeziditruth.org/ yezidi_religious_tradition
, ‘Yezidism:
Historical Roots’, by Tosine Reshid,
International Journal of Kurdish
Studies
, 2005.

1.
The Penguin History of Early India
, Romila Thapar. Penguin,2002.

2.
Kim
, Rudyard Kipling, 1901.

3.
‘Ravana
worshipped on Dussehra in Madhya Pradesh’,
The Times of India
, 5
October 2011.

4.
The Lost City of Dvarka
, S.R. Rao, Aditya Prakashan, 1999 and
An
Ancient Harbour at Dwarka
, A.S. Gaur et al. National Institute of
Oceanography,
Current Science
, May 2004.

5.
China: A History
, John Keay. HarperCollins 2008.

6.
The Mahabharata also
contains a sub-plot about Ulupi, a Naga princess, and her rivalry with Chitrangada
over Arjuna. This is interesting given the modern-day frictions between the Nagas
and the Manipuris. Since I am not sure that today’s Naga tribes relate to
the Naga tribe mentioned in the Mahabharata, I have left this out of the main text.
Nonetheless, there are some interesting coincidences. Arjuna and Ulupi had a son
called
Iravan, a minor character in the epic, who is depicted in
folk art in faraway Tamil Nadu as a decapitated head. The tribes of Nagaland
practised headhunting into living memory. One wonders whether there is a link.