Land of the Seven Rivers

Title: Land of the Seven Rivers – A Brief History of India’s Geography

Author: Sanjeev Sanyal

Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2012 (First)

ISBN: 9780670086399

Pages: 331

 

India is a vast nation with varied geographical features that had shaped the contours of its civilisation and facilitated the flow of history. The dawn of India’s cultural identity was in the Indus civilisation that flourished nearly 4000 years ago. The river Indus, its five major tributaries and the now dried-up Saraswati River provided the cradle to it and the landscape is forever immortalized as Sapta Sindhu, land of the seven rivers, in the Vedas. The civilizational state that is India took root from there and continues to engage the world productively even though it had seen several ups and downs. This book is an attempt to record a panoramic picture of the country’s past right from its tectonic origins, how it was populated, the various kingdoms and ideas that dominated it, the internal and external aggressions that threatened to stamp it out and the new challenges the country faces in the modern economic framework. ‘From Gondwana to Gurgaon’ is a section’s title in the book which also describes the book’s functional objective and can even be its title. The author narrates a tale that spans several thousands of years in an uncomplicated manner fit for easy reading. Sanjeev Sanyal is an Indian economist and popular historian. He has authored several books on Indian history and was born in Kolkata.

 

When the Harappan civilization’s ruins were discovered more than a century ago, there were diverging surmises on how it ended. Colonial historians ascribed invasion of Aryan tribes from central Asia as the reason for its downfall. Sanyal argues that this is fallacious as it is not supported by any kind of evidence, either archeological or literary. This theory was crafted only to legitimize the colonial regime against its subjects as the British could easily be construed as the modern-day Aryans who conquered the country in just another chapter of invasions. Having done so, he poses the question of where did the Harappans go, if they were not decimated by the invaders. Eminent historians like Romila Thapar is of the opinion that the ‘material culture shows no continuities’. Actually, this is a hollow argument which was demolished by B. B. Lal, one of India’s most celebrated archeologists. The Harappan culture still lives on in India. The shape and design of the bullock carts used by Harappans and employed in India till quite recently are surprisingly similar. Namaste, a common Indian gesture to show respect to both people and gods can be observed in the Harappan clay figurines with palms folded in the same way. Even terracotta dolls of women with red vermillion on their foreheads were found. Experts are of the opinion that India’s traditional system of weights and measures is derived from the Harappans with many similarities still discernible. Ancient Chess pieces that look remarkably like modern equivalents have been found. All these point to the reality that Harappans did not just disappear, rather they live on amongst us. Drying up of the river Saraswati and other climatic factors led to the disintegration of the civilisation rather than Aryan invasion.

 

The above was a case of continuity where tradition flows unobstructed from the ancient to the present. However, there are many instances of a break, especially in tastes and aesthetics. Sanyal presents a very relevant case. Our present society prefers people with fair skin as mates and there are cosmetic formulas available in the market to whiten one’s skin. This is a clear break from the past as ancient Indians had a preference for dark skin. The epitome of male handsomeness in Hindu tradition is Krishna whose very name means ‘the dark one’. The depiction of blue skin is a medieval artistic innovation. Marco Polo commented that the darkest man is most highly esteemed in India and that Indians portray their gods and idols black and their devils white as snow. This preference presumably switched in the medieval period probably as a result of Muslim conquests.

 

The author takes a dig at left historians who evaluate Indian history through the framework of Marxism. That ideology posits economic conflict between two rival groups as the prime mover of human change. This is plainly not applicable to India and as a consequence their explanations, though conforming to political theory, look grotesque and out of place when applied to reality. The author wants them to accept that India is a civilizational state that is outside the narrow ideological perimeter of Marxism. He illustrates this with a lucid example from Rajputana. Mewar’s fight with the Mughals was a clash of civilisations. The Mewari rulers saw themselves as the custodians of Hindu civilisation embodied in the temple of Eklingji, a manifestation of Shiva. The deity was considered the real king of Mewar and the rulers used the title of Rana (custodian or prime minister) rather than maharaja. This should be recognized first to understand why Mewar put up continuous resistance to the sultans despite suffering extreme hardships over centuries. On three separate occasions, the capital Chittor was defended to the last man and even after it fell, the struggle was sustained in the hills with the help of Bhil tribesmen. One cannot explain away this behaviour merely in rational political terms.

 

Sanyal looks into the improvements in technology related to geography that helped the imperial powers to get their hold on India. Maps of India existed in the ancient past as well, but these showed only the coast and the large rivers which can be navigated by large marine vessels. Nobody had any idea of the hinterland. Its terrain and vastness lay beyond the grasp of all, including the local inhabitants. With the growth in high quality optical instruments in the seventeenth century, surveying found eager users. The Dutch East India Company was not just helped by the efficiencies of private sector enterprise, but also by the better quality of their maps by Mercator and Ortilius. Unfortunately, Indian rulers still failed to appreciate the significance of these even when they were unfurled and displayed before their eyes. Sir Thomas Roe, the British ambassador to the court of Jehangir, presented an atlas of the latest European maps to the Mughal, but it was politely returned after four days without any query. French maps were superior to their rivals. The best was D’Anville’s, who never visited India but collected the best available information from his Paris home. The British also took cartography very seriously. They conducted the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India that produced very accurate maps in the nineteenth century. This was a Herculean task that dragged on for forty years at great cost.

 

This book is a brief history of India’s geography. It narrates in a soothing way the changes accumulated in India’s natural and human landscape, about ancient trade routes and cultural linkages, rise and fall of cities, about dead rivers and the legends that keep them alive. It acknowledges the strong influence of Indian civilisation on Southeast Asia and keeps the region under consideration in several chapters. It tracks the progress of Hindu kingdoms in that region in parallel with Indian history. The author hints that the Chinese orchestrated Islamization of the region in the Middle Ages as a counterweight to Indian influence. The many incarnations of the city of Delhi over the centuries find a prominent mention in these pages. It is a history of Delhi as well. The book gets a touch of first-hand experience as the author has travelled to all the places he describes and hints at what to visit and expect there. This is a very useful tip for readers who plan to visit those places. Taken as a whole, reading this book was a feel-good experience.

 

The book is highly recommended.

 

Rating: 4 Star