History of modern day India

Buddhism is a religion that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama around 500 B.C.E. It gets the name from the word ‘budhi’ which means ‘to awaken’. The followers of this religion do not believe or pray to a supreme deity, instead focus on attaining enlightenment. Buddhism and Jainism  have a lot in common and are often referred to as sister religions. Both these religions place high importance in the concepts of non-violence and peace. Siddhartha Gautama Siddhartha was born in the royal Shakya clan of the Kosala kingdom of Mahajanapadas . His birth year is considered to be between 624 B.C.E and 563 B.C.E., and birth place is considered to be Lumbini or Kapilavastu in Nepal. Very little information is available on the early life of Siddhartha, it is believed that he lived a luxurious life and had also mastered combat skills. At the age of sixteen, Siddhartha married a princess, Yasodhara. The king lavished them with luxuries and they passed t...

Jainism or the Jain Dharma is a religion that teaches that the path to spiritual enlightenment is through disciplined non-violence. Jainism is based on the teachings of 24 Jinas or Tirthankaras, who have attained enlightenment and liberated their souls from the cycle of rebirths. Jina translates to ‘ spiritual victor ’, meaning that these 24 people have battled their natural attachment to the world, including emotions, people and things, to achieve enlightenment. Tirthankara translates to ‘ maker of a ford ’, meaning that the enlightened person has built a ford across the river of rebirth so others can follow him to liberation. What is the cycle of rebirths - samsara? According to Jainism (and also Hinduism) every living being is associated with a soul or jiva, and these souls are trapped in the never ending cycle of rebirths where a soul transfers to different bodies (animal and human) based on its Karma. If the soul has performed good Karma, it gets to...

In the previous post , we saw the various developments during the Vedic age. This post, although a small deviation from following the timeline, is to look at what the Vedas have to say and also about the caste system. All the ancient Hindu texts are classified as Shruti and Smriti at a high level. Shruti translates to “what is heard”, these texts are the ones that have been passed generation over generation by the great sages of Hinduism and are author-less i.e. a single person is not associated with their creation. These holy texts lay down all the principles or Dharma that are to be followed in Hinduism.  The Vedas fall under Shruti along with the Upanishads , which are considered the branches of Vedas. Upanishads are also known as Vedanta, which translates to the end of Veda, meaning they are the conclusion (anta) and the goal of the Veda. There are 108 Upanishads which are divided among the four Vedas. For further details on Upanishads, I wo...

Introduction In the previous post  we saw that with the arrival of nomadic Aryans, India moved into the Vedic Period. This is considered to be the time between 1750-500 B.C.E. when the Aryans started to settle around the Indus valley and the plains around Ganga. The history of this period is linked to the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures of the Sanathana Dharma or Hinduism. The Vedas are classified into four parts, Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Yajurveda, and Samaveda. A look into what each of these Vedas convey is for another post. There are various unanswered questions on the origin of Vedas. Did the Aryans bring the knowledge of Vedas when they entered India? Did they compose it after interaction with the Dravidians? Was this common knowledge in Dravidian culture and Aryans were mere translators, penning it down in Sanskrit? The four Vedas ...

Why Indus valley civilization vanished? In the previous post we saw how Indus valley intelligently tackled most problems. Speculations arise on how such a sophisticated and well-planned civilization came to an end. The major reasons are believed to be climatic changes leading to floods. The river might have changed its course and the establishments on one side of the river were washed away. The settlements on the other side were now running short of water and resulted in droughts. This led to significant loss of lives and migration of people away from Indus. The flood Iron Age As the Indus-valley civilization was vanishing, migrations were high in number all over India. People were moving towards the settlements around Ganga or the south of Vindhyas. Around this time the human race discovered iron and started using it to make various tools. The disaster had put ...

Civilizations and Bronze-age In the introduction to this series we saw that humans were settling around major rivers and as a result learnt agriculture and started to domesticate animals. The major settlements were around the Indus rivers. As more and more people started to join this settlement, various clusters started to form. This was also the start of internal trades where markets were becoming common. This population explosion was something the people could not handle and it is believed that human waste was accumulating leading to health issues. How did they handle this problem? These problems were the motivational points for the people to start thinking about a structured civilization. Cities were planned and houses were constructed in blocks.  Sewage was handled extremely well by this civilization, using closed pipes to divert the human waste.  Closed toilets were also constructed in each house. Evidences also sho...

Introduction India is a beautiful country which accommodates various religions, cultures, languages, and traditions. The diversity of India socially and geographically is what makes the country loved all over the world. But India wasn’t always like this right? Why did so many languages form? How do cultures vary across the terrain of the country? When did all this come to exist? In this series we are going to try and figure out answers to these and various such questions. In this process I believe we will learn to appreciate the country and people who co-exist despite differences. The era before civilizations were established Pre-History The modern day humans i.e. Homo Sapiens are believed to have originated from Africa. They were living in this continent for thousands of years and a few clans slowly started to move north towards modern day Europe due to climate changes, lack of food or intra-clan clashes. Afte...