Civilization in Ancient India

The Civilization in Ancient India

Author: Louis Renou
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers
Pages: 182

The Civilization in Ancient India, by Louis Renou in French and translated by Philip Spratt is a work on the polity, life and thought in ancient India. Based on several references, the book is a solid piece of historical scholarship. A brief overview of the history, religion and philosophy is given in the first four chapters as an introduction and the probe into various activities of ancient Indian life begins thereafter in full earnest. The author has based his references mainly on Kautilya’s Arthashasthra. Several passages and conclusions are founded on the anecdotes in Mahabharata, Ramayana, Kathasaritsagara, Mricchakatika and other Buddhist texts. The authenticity of a work which is based on such fictional literature is naturally to be doubted. However, Renou has indicated at several places, that the veracity is to be doubted and suggests possible alternatives. The work makes it an essential object of desire for anybody intending to dig to the roots of the stories and morals depicted in the most prominent epics of Hinduism. Various topics such as Caste, family, civil law, penal law, state, politics and war, economics and public as well as private life are discussed in detail.

There are several aspects which the book makes amply clear. For example, while even the most adroit philospher may be at a disadvantage if asked to define Hinduism, this work gives a nice one as “a complete organisation of society and of thought”. The family is defined as “the community of residence and meals (those who live at the same fire – Brihaspati Smriti, XXV-6)”. The practice of Stridhana in ancient times is described as, “Property of certain kinds forms Stridhana, “the property of the woman”. Kautilya defines it briefly as cost of maintenance and things attached to the body like clothes and jewels. The interesting fact about this special kind of property is that the woman can dispose it of freely; and passes by right to the daughters according to the compex rules which take into account the class f the marriage etc”. Obviously, the practice has changed a lot from those times!

A weird aspect of the judicial system is explained. The plantiff was penalised if he lost the appeal, and if he wins, the judge who ruled against him were punished. Our judicial officers definitely won’t like to relive the past!. As Renou says, “The cost of justice was high. The plaintiff who loses an appeal pays twice the fine to which he was sentenced in the lower court; if he wins, his opponent pays double, and the judge whose decision is thus reversed are themselves liable to penalty. To the legal costs must be added the sums, at stake on the on side or the other, or on both: the profit from it all goes to the king, or sometimes to the magistrate”.

Islam, which became prominent in the 7^th century CE prohibits depiction of life forms in portraits and sculpture. Curiously, Buddha also seems to have issued such an edict as, “The existence of frescoes representing the human figure is proved by the Vinaya, such representation was forbidden by the Buddha, who allowed only floral designs to be painted (Chullavagga, VI-3)” (page 163). This may be the reason why early Buddhist paintings show the enlightened one by symbols only. It is also true that the practice was grossly abused in the later centuries.

However, on several points, the assertions of the author are liable to objections. Especially in the case of war and military preparations, the author seems to have accepted the puranic descriptions without any qualifications. The constitution of the Akshouhini (a legion of ancient warfare) is given as 21,870 chariots and elephants, 65,610 horses and 1,09,350 infantrymen. Eighteen such akshouhinis participated in the Mahabharata war. This is highly exaggerated and the ancient population was not so numerous as to account for the infantry men, let alone the logistic requirements of managing such huge military force! Similar is the case when Renou asserts that a strong central government existed, as “The provisions summarized here (regarding commercial law) allow us to infer the existence of a highly centralized state, in which the private activitywas subjected to control, and in a certain degree ‘directed’” page 81. We know that India was a decentralized state, with the village councils growing into prominence when the central authority waned. This was the established custom through the ages. So, where is the evidence for a centralized state?

The claims of the proponents of vedic science has grown so extravagant that aviation science was also known in ancient India. But Renou has conclusively puts the idea to rest, as “Certain Indian authors have believed or claimed to believe in aviation in ancient India, on the ground of the mention of vimana or aerial chariots (which are sometimes flying houses, such as the chariot Pushpaka possessed by the demon Ravana in the epics. Simple poetical fantasies are given a trifle more solidity by the pseudotechnical description of ‘flying machines’ found in the Samaranganasutra, a treatise on architecture attributed to king Bhoja (11^th century). In any case, there is nowhere any clear mention of the use of such machines in war”. (Page 125)

Slavery was prominent, and they were valued at very low rates. ”An ox cost 12 pana, a horse 24 and a female slave 50”. No Arya was to be made a slave, but the evidence, which contradicts or qualifies such statements, implies at most that the Arya does not lose his quality of Arya, that the notions of Arya and dasa are incompatible”. The taxation was rigid, but not cruel, as the author says, “The normal taxation, the ‘bhaga’ of one-sixth, the reality of which Hiuen-Tsang establishes for his time, cannot have been generally exceeded, and is tolerable. Many kings prided themselves on their moderation: even Rudradaman, whose palace shone with jewels, boasted that he had acquired them by regular taxes, he was able to build the Sudrasana dam without having recourse to extaordinary contributions. The picture drawn by Fa-hien, and especially by Hiuen-Tsang, is definitely favourable. It would be arbitrary to give a gloomy account of the situation of the peasant in antiquity on the basis of the misery which followed the Muslim invasions” (Page 116). Those magnificent building of Mughal era came at price – the life and blood of the millions of agricultural workers!

Overall rating: 3 Star