Indian Cultural Contacts With South East Asia

Title: Indian Cultural Contacts With South East Asia

Author: Ramranjan Das

Publisher: Education Forum, Kolkata 2009 (First published: not specified)

ISBN: 81-87657-97-9

Pages: 147

Dr Ramranjan Das was a prominent academician in West Bengal and was an author of several books, most of them fiction. But the present work is an utter failure in all respects. The author seeks to bring out the Indian cultural influences on south-east Asia by examining each empire in turn. Unfortunately, the sloppy coverage has effected just the reverse. The reader is not enlightened in anything in particular from this book. When I closed the book after turning the last page with a sigh of relief, I was not at all any more knowledgeable than I was before taking up this work.

Buddhism reached SE Asia through Ashoka’s missionaries. The Pallava kings who flourished in South India during the latter half of the first millennium C.E brought the rejuvenated Hindu culture to these far off lands. Both the religions more or less coexisted peacefully as they did in India, but the Hinduism in those lands were not particularly vitiated with casteism as it has been its lot in India. The author analyses the reasons for this peculiarity and finds that the feeble hold of Brahmans was the cause, which may be right. As the Muslim and imperial hold strengthened, Indian influences weakened or was completely wiped off before the sword and gun wielding enemies. The eastern lands were not effectively under a central monarchy when Indian ideas took hold and such monarchies sapped energy from the ideals of divine right of the kings enshrined in Indian philosophy at that time. The cultural domination India obtained in SE Asia was not colonization in the modern sense as there were absolutely no political or economic conquests. The social, religious and political ideas were absorbed and modified by the local societies without any reference to a country which they have heard only in sagas and legends.

In Cambodia, the ancient kingdom of Funan was conquered by Khmers in the 6^th century CE. Both the parties in the fight were following Indian modes of conduct. The word Kamboja or Cambodia came from the sound Khmer whose rule ended in the 13^th century. Sanskrit was widely used in court and also in epigraphy. The Cambodian kings were well versed in Sanskrit literature and Yasovarman made a commentary on Mahabhashya. The indigenous architecture, with great affinities to India, reached its zenith under Indravarman I (877-899) as evidenced by his capital at Angkor Thom in which bas-reliefs cover a total length of 80 km! Suryavarman built a magnificent temple at Angkor Wat, a Vishnu temple, which is also the largest in the world. The major dynastical periods in Cambodia were 1) Funan 2) Chenla 3) Angkor period and 4) Post-Angkor period.

Champa, present day Vietnam was subject to Indian influence which began under Bhadravarman during the 4^th century CE. The country was known as Lin Yi in China and was predominantly Hindu. The major dynastical periods were 1) Lin Yi and 2) Champa.

Java and Sumatra were known as Yavadvipa and Suvarnabhumi respectively in ancient India indicating cultural and trade links with those countries. The major empires were Sailendra and Srivijaya. The great Buddhist temple at Borobudur in Java was consecrated during the Sailendra period. Hinduism also existed side by side and Loro Jangrang was a noted Hindu temple of this era. After the 11^th century, the influence waned and indigenous elements began to assert its supremacy. Bali, which is still Hindu in religion came under Javan influence only in the 12^th century and it retains its unique characteristics to this day, making it a hotspot for tourists and Islamic terrorists alike. The major periods in Java are categorised as 1) Pre-Muslim period and 2) Muslim period, while in Bali they were 1) Majapahit and 2) Muslim.

Siam, present day Thailand was also under Indian cultural exchange as evidenced by the name of its capital city Ayuttia (Ayodhya). The major periods were 1) Sukhot’ai 2) Ayutt’ia and 3) Luang Prabang. The corresponding categorizations in Burma, present day Myanmar were 1) Pagan 2) Ava 3) Toungoo 4) Alaungpaya 5) Mon rulers (Pegu) and 6) Arakan.

There are no positive points to say about the book, but the negative ones may itself take up several pages. The descriptions of historical places, empires and geographical areas are not supported by relevant maps. It is true that he has produced some maps borrowed from current school atlases, but they don’t indicate the location of those ancient empires like Champa, Khmer or their capitals. There are no plates or images of the architectural masterpieces so elaborately described in the text. Even though there are references to plates, they are not included in the book. The author’s preconceived notions are asserted throughout the book as self-evident facts. He compares casteism in India to racism in the West and concludes that the former is more benevolent than the other as he says, “In India we have traces of untouchability but where is the comparison to a whitemen’s policy of segregating Negroes and denying them the right to study in a college?” (Author’s own words). He could find only ‘traces’ of untouchability in India! Wherever it was practised in India, the lower castes were indeed segregated and not allowed the right to education.

The language is extremely poor and most often school-boyish with no grammar and laughable constructions. Sometimes, the facts are also given in a contradictory way. For example, he says about the Indian influence in Java as “Indian influence was somewhat stronger in Eastern Java than in the centre” on page 102 and just turn to page 108 and you see “Notwithstanding the allegiance of the earlier rulers of East Java to the Saivite tradition, Indian influence had always been weaker there than in Central Java”! The author doesn’t seem to know what he is churning out. Another such example was the identification of the term Suvarnabhumi (Golden land) used in ancient India. On page 100 he concludes it to be Sumatra whereas on page 140, identifies it with Burma!

This book is a pure waste of time. Only a lunatic will buy it at the suggested price of Rs. 300 which is astronomically high for a worthless book like this one. Spelling mistakes are galore at the rate of about 4 per page, with the worst cases being “fined” for find, “immorality” for immortality, “piece” for peace and “represented” for resented! The content is also not interesting as it looks like the author had heavily relied upon some reference books with no personal contributions. Detailed descriptions of architecture are given in a haphazard way, raising suspicions whether the author himself has understood what he was writing. Avoid this book at any cost.

Rating: 1 Star

Court Life Under The Vijayanagar Rulers

Title: Court Life Under The Vijayanagar Rulers

Author: Madhao P Patil

Publisher: B.R Publishing Corp, New Delhi 1999 (First)

ISBN: 81-7646-94-X

Pages: 212

Disappointing work. Nothing to comment  upon. Favourably. Lot of data. No organisation….Oops! Reading Patil for long has made me unconsciously copy his writing style! Well, this is what one should expect from this book made from well researched source material, but fails to enthuse the reader owing to its equally poor style, language and presentation.

The history of Vijayanagara is gathered from the vivid accounts left by foreign travellers, merchants and diplomats who visited it in its heyday. Noted among those are Abdur Razzaq, Domingo Paes and Fernando Nuniz, who have prepared extensive descriptions of various aspects of the court life. The first chapter of the gives in brief the political history of the empire, from its beginnings in 1336, right upto 1672 when the flame petered out. The narration is however, not impartial and the religious sentiments of the author intermixes making the task of history writing skewed. The pace is rather forced and the language is mediocre.

Second chapter details court administration with many practises and customs explained. The kings were pleasure loving as seen in Krishnadevaraya’s harem which included 12,000 women of all ages! In addition to this, there were 4,000 women in the palace to wait upon the king. More over, there were 200 elite guards entrusted with no other duty than protecting the king’s person, which were never safe in the three-centuries of Vijayanagara owing court intrigues and successional disputes. The kings seem to be non-vegetarians, as “The Vijayanagar kings were both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Except the flesh of cow or oxen, they used to consume all sorts of non-vegetarian variety including rats, cats and lizard, if Nuniz were to be believed” (p.47). The empire was centered on the king and the concept of welfare state was not even risen in the horizon. Krishnadevaraya, the most benevolent and strong soverign among the rulers apportions the tax revenue of the kingdom in the following way, 25% for the king and his entourage, 50% for procuring military accessories including horses and weapons and the remaining 25% to be hoarded in the treasury. The plight of the poor people was very deplorable and the magnificent edifices of Hampi were erected on the dreams and lives of the ordinary subjects the police state had trod roughshod upon. The kings were very superstitious with strict adherence to the advice of astrologers and there is an instance in which Krishnadevaraya put his rajguru on the throne for a day on the counsel given by an astrologer that the day is so inauspicious that even death may result to the person who sits on the throne.

The third chapter is on court patronage to poets, musicians and other artists. The kings donated freely to temples and brahmins but that was about all as far as their charities went. The rayas were not bigoted as instanced by Venkata II gifting two villages tax-free to Fr. Simon de Sa Rector for construction of churches and the lavish gifts given to the darghah at Nagore. Krishnadevaraya, himself no mean scholar greatly encouraged poets, painters and other artists. Great literati known as Ashtadiggajas (eight great elephants) in his court were, Peddanna, Timmanna, Dhurjati, Nallanna, Ramrajbhushan, Ramkrishna, Pingali, Surrana and Rudra. Even though the name of Purandaradasa, known as the father of Carnatic music is heard in association to Vijayanagar empire, his name is not mentioned anywhere in the book.

Vijayanagar court was ripe with intrigue at all times. Even the practice of consecrating Yuvaraja (crown prince) was followed, it never alleviated the succession struggles which ensued at the death of a reigning monarch. There were several instances of regicide and fratricide. King Virupaksha was slayed by his son, Sadashiva was assassinated by Venkata who ascended the throne as Venkatapathi II. In addition of these, the two sons of Saluva Narasimha, Tirumaladeva, Venkatadri, Hoje Tirumala, Sadashiva and Ranga III were also killed while attempts on the life of Krishnadevaraya and Devraya didn’t succeed. Even though the kings were ambivalent on religious concepts, the animosity between Virasaivas and Vaishnavites in the court added fuel to the intrigues. Sometimes, the king encouraged the tussles between nobles in the belief that the nobility would stay divided which enhanced the royal power. Little did he know that the empire suffered from such internal bickerings.

Tenali Rama, much boosted by folk tales in his power and esteem, however finds mention in the book. Tenali Ramlinga, who later changed his name to Ramkrishna Kavi, composed shrine epic such as Ghatikachal-mahatmyamu, Panduranga mahatmyamu etc. (p.103). He switched to Vaishnava faith later. He was well known for his practical jokes, one of which was, Tenali Ramakrishna, the celebrated poet was very famous for his wry and practical humour. Once he obtained a horse from Krishnadevaraya for training and received an allowance from the treasury. But he starved the animal in a small room with only a chink to admit light and air. On the inspection day, he requested the king to send someone to fetch the animal since he couldn’t lead it as it had grown very fat and vicious on account of over feeding. Krishnadevaraya sent one of his muslim officers. Tenali instructed the sardar to peep through the chink. As his beard got into the chink, the horse, mistaking it for grass tugged at it causing much pain to the sardar.

The book gives an exhaustive list of poets and writers in South India during the period of the empire and who had accepted beneficence from the Kings and other nobles. This seems to be the only good point as far as the book is concerned.

The downsides of the work are many. No maps are included to illustrate the geographical frontiers and the direction from which opposition came. Even though Krishna-Tungabhadra doab is mentioned periodically, without a good map there is no way to find which place the author refers to. The book seems to be the doctoral thesis of the author as the description is not lively, dull, uninteresting and the style is often expository. Sometimes, one paragraph extends up to four pages as in page numbers 89-92 and 95-97. The book is strewn with needless repetitions, the epilogue being nothing but a summary of what is written in the previous chapters. Amuktamalyada, the poem composed by Krishnadevaraya is mentioned at about half-a-dozen instances, always with the same phrases. The language is poor and riddled with lot of spelling mistakes and as such cannot be presented before foreign readers.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

Destination Moon

Title: Destination Moon – India’s Quest for the Moon, Mars and Beyond

Author: Pallava Bagla, Subhadra Menon

Publisher: HarperCollins India 2008 (First)

ISBN: 978-81-7223-676-2

Pages: 203

Don’t touch this book even with a long pole, would be my recommendation. This book demonstrates in vivid detail why and how Indian science writing is in such an abyss as this. The title of the book, cover graphics and introduction all give an impression that it describes the exciting journey which India trode in its quest to reach the moon with its automated lunar orbiter, named Chandrayaan 1. Nothing can be further from the truth. The authors are reputed journalists who have claimed to contribute to NewScientist and Scientific American. But such high standards in scientific journalism are not at all evidenced by the crap these two writers have filled in these 200-odd pages. What these poor fellows meant by popular science is nothing but the bureaucratic procedures India’s moon mission had to undergo. Whatever science described can be well condensed into four or five pages of technical mumbo-jumbo which the authors themselves have not understood and they copied from ISRO’s website. The book as a whole looks like it was commissioned by ISRO to extol their virtues. After every 5-10 pages, a quotation from G Madhavan Nair, the then chairman of ISRO is given most which are squeezed and shaped to meet the context. There are two lengthy forewards from K Kasturirangan and G Madhavan Nair, former chairmen of ISRO. There are three long interviews with Madhavan Nair and two foreign space scientists. The introduction, forewards and verbatim interviews cover 89 pages (out of 203) which is almost 45% of the entire book! This would be sufficient to show what the book is really worth! It is also replete with repetitions and tangential flights of narration.

The first chapter explains basic facts on the moon including why its study is important for us because of the arresting of planetary evolution of the moon as it has no tectonic activity. It was pleasant to note that Indian scientists like Bhabha, Sarabhai, Saha and Bose have contributed their names to craters on the moon. The book’s only worth lies in the comprehensive history of international lunar missions given. Space era was inaugurated with the flying of Sputnik 1 in Oct 1957. Yuri Gagarin flew in space in 1961. Unmanned missions to moon proliferated in the 60s with the USSR and USA locked in a race to reach the moon. Russia’s Luna 9 landed on the moon in 1966 and Luna 16 brought back samples from there. But the victory in the race awaited the Americans when they landed people there on Jul 20, 1969 in the Apollo 11 mission. Five more successful Apollo missions ensued in which astronauts landed on the lunar surface. The human landings were on Jul 1969 (Apollo 11), Nov 1969 (Apollo 12), Jan 1971 (Apollo 14), Jul 1971 (Apollo 15), Apr 1972 (Apollo 16) and Dec 1972 (Apollo 17). The last person to land was Harrison Schmitt in 1972 and the famous blue image of the earth was clicked during this mission.

Indian space programme began from humble beginnings in 1963 when the first sounding rocket, an American supplied Nike Apache rocket was blasted off from Thumba in Kerala. In 1969, ISRO was formed to act as the lone player in the space science field. ISRO’s core competence lies in manufacturing, launching and operating communications (INSAT) and remote sensing (IRS) satellites. India has at present 11 working satellites in orbit and this figure is a record in Asia-Pacific. Indian remote sensing images are of high quality that there are uncofirmed reports that the U.S. used Indian satellite imagery in their quest for the hideouts of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

The fifth chapter attempts to describe the technology required for the moon mission, but the stress was mainly on the preparations by the ISRO to attempt the mission. This lengthy chapter is basically a repeat of the foreword written by Dr. Kasturirangan with the text almost a verbatim copy. Unnecessary and irrelevant details of seminars and conferences are heaped up in this chapter. The authors are really testing the patience of the readers in this chapter where a resolution adopted by a conference is reproduced in detail! India plans to put a man a space by 2015 and to send men to the moon by 2020, provided the government approves the programme. This gives in a nutshell what the book purports to project in its entire text.

The book is utterly disappointing and a heavy bore. It is written with no homework and lacks depth everywhere. Where it goes above the average is where it reproduces tables and data from websites and newspapers. Some of the data reproduced are sourced from Wikipedia, giving the lie to the lofty credentials of the authors! The chapter on moon lacks finesse and most of the important details are left out such as how it stabilizes earth’s tilt of the axis which is absolutely critical for the survival of higher life forms on earth. The extensive listing of stories, legends and myths about the moon is irrelevant for a scientific book. This book looks more like ISRO’s press notice, full of quotations from its former chairmen and others. Thoroughly disgusting.

The book is not at all recommended.

Rating: 1 Star

Vijayanagara

Title: Vijayanagara (The New Cambridge History of India 1.2)

Author: Burton Stein

Publisher: Foundation Books 1999 (First published - Cambridge University Press 1993)

ISBN: 81-85618-46-1

Pages: 146

This small book constitutes a part of the New Cambridge History of India. As can be judged from its size, the range of the book is rather limited. The author has failed to instil the sense of grandeur this medieval empire possessed to an uninitiated person of medieval Indian history. Even after reading this book, such a person will not be able to gather a comprehensive view of the empire and its leaders.

Vijayanagara is well remembered today, thanks to the extraordinarily impressive structures in Hampi, its capital city. This was not the case two centuries back when the empire was a forgotten one, with Hampi in ruins. The first historical works on Vijayanagara was by Mark Wilks (1810) and Colonel Colin Mackenzie (1815). Wilks was the political agent of the English East India Company at the court of Wodeyar rajas in Mysore who were reinstated after the crushing of the usurper Tipu Sultan in 1799. The flame of knowledge kindled by these Englishmen were relayed through notable Indian scholars like S Krishnaswamy Aiyangar and K A Nilakanta Sastri, whose extensive researches set the standard in erudite, indigenous learning.

12^th century South India was dominated by four kingdoms in the peninsula – Hoysala, Kakatiya, Chola and Pandya. The last two were in Tamil country and enjoyed rich agricultural revenue from the bounty provided by the river Kaveri. The northern kingdoms presided over dry areas, necessitating them to look for alternative revenue sources like development of dry crops, trade or outright military measures on the southern neighbours. The northern frontier was fixed by the Bahmani sultanate. Invasions from the north by Malik Kafur, the commander of Alauddin Khilji in the beginning of the 14^th century which came as far south as Tirunelveli made the ground work for rapid changes in the political situation. The older kingdoms were weakened and subsidiary rulers began to assume greater powers. Mummadi Singa, who established the Kampili kingdom at Anegondi near Hampi was defeated. Harihara and Bukka, the first two of the Sangama brothers who were in the army of Singa broke free and established the Sangama dynasty as the first of the Vijayanagara royal lineages in 1344. Rise of Kannada and Telugu regionalisms after India’s independence prompted allied historians to come up with alternate versions of what happened six centuries before. The Kannada protagonists declare that the Sangama brothers were in the employ of king Vira Ballala III of the Hoysalas while the Telugu ones claim them to be under Pratapa Rudra of the Kakatiyas.

The 14^th century was noted for the way in which the military tactics of the peninsula changed by incorporating modern weapons and tactics. Well mobilised cavalry and field canons were the trump cards of the Muslim invaders and the Hindu kingdoms were forced to employ them even at the cost of heavy foreign imports as the horse is not native to India. Cavaliers were in great demand everywhere and conversion of these warriors to Islam were actively encouraged by the sultans. Military careers offered ever wider choices of employers, and these increased for any fighter who converted to Islam. While being a Muslim did not confer equality with the great Turkic commanders, it did nevertheless open great careers. An example was the Khalji commander Malik Kafur, a Gujarati convert to Islam, who held the view that Muslim soldiers serving Hindu kings whom he captured should not be killed because they could at least repeat the credo! Thus, being a Muslim did confer standing for any man in a society becoming more urban under Muslim pressures (p.23). This was just to show the fanatical zeal of those times.

Vijayanagara’s unheralded architect was Devaraya II who reigned in the middle of the 15^th century. However, the man who coloured the imaginations of millions and still do so, was Krishnadevaraya who reigned for 20 years from 1509. Krishnadevaraya ended the custom of local chiefs governing parts of the empire as patrimony and appointed military commanders loyal to the king instead. Such a sweeping centralisation was alien to South India and was reminiscent of the Mughal’s administrative practises in the North. Though such a scheme assured central hegemony for the time being, the war chieftains were more or less independent and conspired against the king as and when the opportunity reared its head. Powerful generalissimos found it easy to topple central authority when it was weakened by the constitution of the incumbent or succession struggles between brothers. Apart from the Sangamas, three other dynasties ruled the empire, namely Saluvas, Tuluvas and Aravidu. Scions of all these three, Saluva Narasimha of the Saluvas, Narasa Nayaka of the Tuluvas and Aravidi Bukka of the Aravidu were faithful commanders of the Vijayanagara army at different times. Krishnadevaraya belonged to the Tuluva dynasty.

Vijayanagara represents the transformation of South Indian society from medieval to modern times. The notable kingdoms and cities in the modern era took shape during the 16^th century. Wodeyars were the local chiefs of Srirangapatna who profited from the crushing of the Ummattur chiefs who reigned at Sivasamudram and who offended the great Krishnadevaraya. Chamaraja Wodeyar (1513-53) established a small fortified place, Mahisura-nagara which later transformed to Mysore. Similarly, Kempe Gowda established a principality around present day Bangalore in 1513. The magnificent development of the temple at Tirupati from the status of an ancient shrine to a grand temple occurred around this time. Vijayanagara kings accepted the deity at Tirupati as their tutelary divinity.  Saluva Narasimha began this process in 1450s when he donated tax-free land to the temple and Achyutadevaraya was coronated at the temple in 1529.

Seeds of destruction of the great empire was sown during the reign of Achyutadevaraya who was the brother and successor of Krishnadevaraya. The Nayaka kingdoms of the south turned belligerent and the problems were compounded by the successionist struggles initiated by Aliya Rama Raja, the son-in-law of Krishnadevaraya. Rama Raja established the Aravidu dynasty and his machiavellian tactics against the Deccan sultanates backfired in the end, when they joined a common front against him. The combined Muslim forces decimated the Vijayanagara armies in a humiliating battle in 1565 at Talikota in which Rama Raja himself was killed. The victors followed the vanquished to their capital city and a sustained destruction campaign lasted for several weeks until the conquering forces were exhausted from the sheer damage they caused to the magnificent capital city at Hampi which lay in ruins before them. Hundreds of temples were destroyed and the bounty they pillaged from there helped the Golkonda sultans to build the city of Hyderabad.

Vijayanagara kings continued to rule even after 1565, but they had to abandon their capital city. Tirumala, a brother of Rama Raja ruled from Penukonda as a skeleton of the erstwhile regime. Most of the territories of the kingdom was now ruled by their former commanders who payed tribute to the former masters only in name. Civil wars among the princes in 1614 and 1630s sounded the death knell for the dynasty which ended when Sriranga III died in 1672. Five principalities arose from the ashes of the empire. They were the Nayaka kingdoms of Ikkeri, Mysore, Gingee, Thanjavur and Madurai. The last three were in Tamil country, but were ruled by Telugu speaking aristocrats from the eastern coasts of the empire. The Karnatak kingdoms were defeated by Hyder Ali Khan in the middle of 18^th century and all kingdoms were gradually assimilated by the British. The port at Pulicat lost prominence with the collapse of the empire and Masulipatnam in the empire of the Golkonda sultans assumed its place.

The book is well researched and a lot of books are indicated for further reference. Being small in size, it can be finished quite quickly. A very fine description of the economic and political conditions prevailing in the age is given.

However, no more plus-points can be pointed for this work. The style is terse and makes uninteresting reading. The book is thoroughly disappointing because it fails to provide even a chronological list of the kings, even as an appendix. The narration is not continuous, as it makes a sample of the beginning of the empire, then fast forwards hundred years to the reign of Devaraya II and then quickly moves on to Krishnadevaraya and the end of the empire. The name ‘Talikota’ (the place at which the Vijayanagara army was convincingly defeated by the sultans in 1565) is not even mentioned in the entire text of the book. Also Stein confuses the tolerance of Indian kings as opportunism when he remarks about the appointing of Muslim soldiers by Devaraya II. He says Devaraya’s opening to Muslim soldiers, his permission to construct mosques and cemeteries in the city, must shatter any remaining illusions of historians that the Hindu and dharmic ideology which may be attributed to the Sanagama founders of the kingdom continued to shape imperial policies (p.70). Being a foreigner, Stein seems to be unable to grasp the ethos of the times in India. The book makes inconsistent remarks about Aliya Rama Raja, the last prominent king. In one location he is said to be the brother-in-law of Krishnadevaraya (p.124) whereas on page 113 and several other pages, he is declared to be his son-in-law. The confusion still remains.

The book is not recommendable. However, this may provide some good insight into the economic conditions prevailing in South India during the three centuries starting from the 14^th.

Rating: 2 Star

After The First Three Minutes

Title: After The First Three Minutes - The Story of Our Universe

Editor: Thanu Padmanabhan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press 1998 (First)

ISBN: 0-521-62039-2

Pages: 210

T Padmanabhan is a Professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India and is a noted Indian scholar on cosmology and astrophysics. He has authored several titles for graduates in Physics. This book narrates the story of the universe from its birth at the Big Bang upto the present moment. Curiously, no attempt at making glimpses on the predicted future of the universe is taken. The author indicates in the foreward that the book is intended for the serious reader, who ‘really wants to learn’. True to the claim, it displays extensive coverage of the basics in the first few chapters which make any peer envious. The narrative starts from the melting of common ice and reaches high-energy nuclear disintegrations in a mesmerizingly connected way.

The second chapter is a particularly illuminating tutorial on fundamentals. Every necessary concept is thoroughly explained and illustrated with the help of line sketches. If we heat a solid substance, it melts because the molecular bonds in the crystal lattice are destroyed due to the energy input. If we continue heating, the molecular connections in the liquid breaks down and it turns to gaseous state. The molecules are almost free in this state and on further heating, the weak connections between molecules fail and it is split into constituent atoms. Further ingress of energy will remove the electrons from atoms and it reaches the plasma state. After the electrons are removed, the nucleus becomes ionized and further energy input will break the nucleus into protons and neutrons. Still higher energy breaks the nucleons into component quarks which are the most basic material which is not divisible further (as of now!).

The third chapter is an excellent primer on the observational technologies by which astronomers painstakingly watch the sky. Visible light constitutes only a small window of the electromagnetic spectrum. Celestial objects emits radiation on a wide range of the spectrum and human beings are handicapped by the peculiarity of their naked eye not to see outside the visible range. Visible light and infrared rays reach the surface of earth and ground-based instruments can be used to study them. Ultraviolet, radio, X-ray and gamma rays are mostly absorbed by the atmosphere and ozone layers making it impossible for scientists to view the sky from ground. Blocking of such harmful radiation, however, is absolutely essential for the survival of life forms. Observation of the universe on these parts of the spectra is possible only by high-altitude baloons, rockets or satellites.

After setting the ground work, the author moves on to star-formation techniques in the fourth chapter. Rotating gas clouds which fall under self-gravity sets in nuclear reactions fusing hydrogen to helium and a star is formed. Upon glowing for several million years, the hydrogen is exhausted and heavier elements are created as part of the final reactions. Depending on the size of the star at this stage, it ends up as a white dwarf or blackhole. Just before the final step in the process, the outer ring of the star explodes in a supernova, spewing the stellar material rich in higher elements like carbon and nitrogen into the interstellar space. Stars form larger structures called galaxies. Our solar system is a part of the Milky Way galaxy. Several such galaxies form groups of galaxies. Our own Milky Way, along with another nearby galaxy Andromeda and several such galaxies constitute what the astronomers call the ‘Local group’. Millions of such clusters make the universe.

The universe is expanding right from the Big Bang and it had an inflationary phase just after the Bang. All theories break down at the mathematical singularity of the Bang. Inflation is an essential postulate to explain the formation of structures like galaxies and clusters, otherwise the smoothness of the universe would make it impossible for the formation of structures. For studying the universe under the influence of strong gravitation, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is essential, but just after the universe was born, its size would’ve been so small that a quantum cosmological model is required. However, relativity and quantum mechanics are strange bed fellows and unifying these two wonderful theories of the 20^th century would make a ‘quantum’ leap in human knowledge!

For galaxies to form, it is absolutely required to have small fluctuations in the density of matter. Matter comes in two forms, normal visible one and dark matter which are undetected as yet. The proof of this density contrast (fluctuation) was observed by the cosmic background explorer satellite (COBE) in 1992. It categorically verified that small variations in the microwave background radiation exist. The author explains quasars and galaxy formation in the form of spirals and ellipticals.

The book is superb as the fundamentals are covered in so much detail and are easily digestible. Several illustrations of key concepts are sprinkled along with the text, keeping the points self-explanatory. A modest but appreciable glossary of key concepts are also given at the end.

However, even with so much advantageous points, the book is not suitable for the general reader. It lacks the human touch and the description often degenerates to mechanical style, particularly in the latter chapters. The ‘degeneracy pressure’ (an unrelated quantum mechanical term!) of the second half of the book is considerable, as to turn most readers away. There is no flow of the argument along the length of the book and each chapter is a stagnant pool of ideas which may be taken out of context, without losing the inherent merit. It looks as if the book was written by several authors because of the independence of the chapters, but this is clearly not the case! The author declares that the book is written with the serious reader and has avoided telling stories like ‘as Prof. Great was driving with his wife to the concert, it suddenly occurred to him…’. This is a clear dig on other popular science authors, but the stubbornness of the author in omitting such simple but easily palatable anecdotes took the life out of the work. This book may be useful for a higher student in preparing the ground work for further studies in the field, but not to the layman. Also some diagrams given are needlessly complicated thus counterbalancing the effects of others. Most importantly, the author is unable to justify the title! No description of any sort is given as to what happened immediately after the first three minutes from Big Bang. The title seems more to be a publisher’s trick to attract general attention.

The book is not recommended for the general reader.

Rating: 2 Star

The Wonder That Was India

Title: The Wonder That Was India

Author: A L Basham

Publisher: Picador India 2004 (First published 1954)

ISBN: 978-0-330-43909-1

Pages: 517

Re-reading Basham’s masterpiece after a gap of eight years was refreshingly enjoyable. If anyone asked me to name a work written by a foreigner which details India in such glorifying words, this book would definitely be my answer. Arthur Llewellyn Basham (1914-1986) was an Englishman and a renowned scholar on Indian history, who taught at the Australian National University at Canberra. He was an Indophile and died in India in 1986 while on a fellowship at the Asiatic Society in Kolkata. He was amiable teacher who didn’t display the distancing feeling of English reserve to his students. This book is also gifted with a piercingly candid foreword by Thomas R Trautmann and was published as marking the golden jubilee of its first edition in 1954.

We’d wonder at the liberal dose of praise for India in the title itself, though after reading the foreword, we’d be sober to learn that the title was embarassing for the author himself and that it was thrusted upon him by the publisher, Sidgwick & Jackson. They had presented a series of such books on various ancient civilisations under such flattering titles such as The Glory That Was Greece, The Grandeur that was Rome, The Splendour that was Egypt and The Greatness that was Babylon! Extreme Indophiles will find the epithets as a setback, because before finding the other titles in the series, it would appear to be a classical case of a westerner acknowledging the true heritage (according to them) of India! Basham’s work is not exactly a historical one, as the history indeed narrated serves only as a backdrop to the main theme of the work, which is understanding the culture, traditions, language, literature and anything Indian. This book is literally an encyclopedia of Indian heritage and is to be treated as a handbook by a student. Also, it is intended mainly for the western student. Even though a vast array of subjects are covered but to no great detail, other than being a handbook, its utility is limited.

Indian civilisation was essentially unchanging and differs in that respect with the other great civilisations like Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. Until unearthed by modern archeologists, the peasants and laymen in those places (except Greece) didn’t have any idea of the treasures they were hiding beneath the soil. In India however, the people were quite convinced of the timelessness of their culture and the thread which connects the ancient society with the ultramodern Indian society of the 21^st century is unbroken, despite the tensile stresses from millennia of foreign invasions and migrations. India was also quite different in another undesirable way as the writers and poets of yesteryears were not interested in recording history as such, and was easily prone to panegyrics. No effort at discovering its history was made until the 18^th century, when the administrators and judges of the English East India Company evinced interest and started research on the subject. Sir William Jones and Charles Wilkins may be said to be the fathers of Indian historical research. Translations of Upanishads evoked interest iN Europe and the first university chair in Sanskrit was founded at the College de France in 1814, though the first such chair in England came about only in 1832 as the Boden Professorship at Oxford.

Basham describes the Harappan culture in great detail and in a flowering language, even though without solid foundations on credible reference materials. The speculative nature of the treatment can be deduced from the diagram of a Harappan town in which the buildings are clustered together on the sides of narrow streets, not unduly different from a modern Indian town of comparable dimensions. Since the book was first published in 1954 which was not far out in time with the archeological finds about this culture, we may wonder at how the author could cite with impunity the achievements and accolades he heaps on these ancients. Though the Indus script is still unreadable, the author asserts that the development of writing at the end of the Vedic period was influenced in no small measure by Mesopotamia and Persia due to the increased commercial contacts with them. Armed with this Brahmi script, the Aryans diffused into the Gangetic plane from the banks of the Indus. The utter disregard with which the author treats the ancient Dravidians who were inhabiting the southern peninsula is curious. They were declared to be in a very primitive, ruthless, blood-thirsty and even references cannibal feasts after victory in war. In a clear attempt to glorify the Aryans, he says that the Dravidians were mellowed under the constant interchange with the Aryan north.

Basham relies too heavily on Arthashastra to obtain the political philosophy reigning in that period which does not carry the rigour associated with a serious attempt at history. Arthashastra, though it provides valuable insight into the nature of the ancient state, its period of composition is still under dispute and hence relying on its flimsy evidence to conclude facts beyond doubt is a bit straining. The organization conceptualized in the work supposedly written by Kautilya seems to be a police state with overwhelming powers assumed by the monarchy. It specifies a night-time curfew which came into effect two-and-a-half hours after sunset and which ended at the same time interval before sunrise. Crime was rampant in the countryside, where the existence of large robber bands is attested from the time of the Buddha onwards. Hsuan Tsang gives the earliest account of hereditary bandits who robbed their victims and murdered them as a religious duty, like the later thugs. Trading caravans were heavily guarded, but were nevertheless frequently plundered by highwaymen. Thus ancient India was faced with a very serious crime problem, though the evidence of most of the foreign travellers suggest that the best ancient Indian kings managed to cope with it. Crime was suppressed through the local officers and garrison commanders, who had large staffs of police and soldiers as well as secret agents who served as detectives. Watchmen kept guard through the night in city and village, and in some medieval kingdoms, special officers (duhsaadhasaadhanika) were deputed to track down and apprehend bandits (p.116).

One of the striking features of Indian culture which is unique in the world is the caste system. The term, ‘caste’ was first coined by the Portuguese in 16^th century who coined the term ‘castas’ and it stuck. Slavery was present in the form of lower castes. Slave markets were established in the Vijayanagar empire in 16^th century, but such large scale slave trading is not mentioned in ancient texts.

The author seems to exceed the limits of reasonable comparison when he asserts that the philosophy of Madhva, the 13^th century philosopher who propounded dualism (dvaita) was influenced by Christianity, as “An interesting feature of Madhva’s theology is the important part played by the wind-god Vayu, the son of Vishnu, who is his agent in the world and has some of the features of the Holy Ghost of Christian theology. The resemblances of Madhva’s system to Christianity are so striking that influence, perhaps through the Syrian Christians of Malabar, is almost certain. The sharp distinction between God and the soul, the doctrine of eternal damnation, and the status of Vayu are obvious points of similarity” (p.336).

Glowing tributes are paid to the inventor of zero, as “The debt of the western world to India in this respect cannot be overestimated. Most of the great discoveries and inventions of which Europe is so proud would have been impossible without a developed system of mathematics, and this in turn would have been impossible if Europe had been shackled by the unwieldy system of Roman numerals. The unknown man who devised the new system was from the world’s point of view, after the Buddha, the most important son of India. His achievement, though easily taken for granted, was the work of an analytical mind of the first order, and he deserves much more honour than he has so far received.” (p.498).

Nowadays we encounter people who assume undue pride on the achievements of ancient India based upon interpreted results which have no relation to the original ideas, but wholly the handiwork of these people. One such thing is mentioned in the appendix on cosmology and geography. It is stated that Brahmagupta (7^th century C.E.) gave the circumference of the earth as 5,000 yojanas and assuming a yojana to be 7.2 kilometers, the value given is surprisingly close to the true figure. Wow! How he could find out such a thing, twelve centuries ago, when the telescope and modern instruments were not even invented? When we moves to Appendix 8 on Weights and Measures, it is seen that yojana was a variable measure in ancient India. Some authorities takes a figure of 8,000 dandas for the yojana (14.4 km) whereas in the Arthashastra, it is given as 4,000 dandas which is conveniently chosen by the author for providing the conversion factor for Brahmagupta’s number!

The book is an excellent one, but should not be depended for reading the history of the land. It is a veritable treasure trove of information on the religion, social behaviour, thought and institutions. Basham gives a prominent place for the discussion on religion, which covers almost 20% of the book. He seems to be in an admiring mood most of the time, when the subject under discussion does not warranty it. The justification of the Ordeal by ploughshare wherein a suspected person is forced to lick a red-hot ploughshare, based on psychological grounds is one such example.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star