Download Chapter 15 India and the Indian Ocean Basin

Chapter 15 India and the Indian Ocean
Basin
THE CHAPTER IN PERSPECTIVE
India, just as with Greece, Rome, Constantinople and China, played an influential role in shaping
neighboring societies, in this case south and southeast Asia. The great difference between the situation in India and
that of the other states was that no Indian state would develop to rival the political authority of the Tang or Roman
states. Nevertheless, as India continued to evolve its distinctive political, cultural and religious traditions became to
diffuse to its neighbors. For example, Indian merchants carried Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam to southeast Asia.
OVERVIEW
Islamic and Hindu Kingdoms
Centralized political rule in India collapsed in 451 C.E. when the Guptas were overrun by White Huns from
Central Asia and it would not return until the sixteenth century. Internal wars and frequent invasions by Turkishspeaking nomads left northern India chaotic and politically fragmented. Brief reunification in the seventh century
by the scholarly Buddhist emperor Harsha did little in the long run to change the political pattern in the north. This
lack of political unity in the north made foreign incursion easy and in 711 the Sind was incorporated into the
Umayyad empire. The region eventually passed to the Abbasids and remained, although often only marginally,
under their control into the thirteenth century. Islam also came into India via Muslim merchants and Turkishspeaking migrants from central Asia. Mahmud of Ghazni launched seventeen major invasions of India in the early
eleventh century. The main goal of Mahmud was plunder so he won very few converts to Islam. However, his
invasions proved disastrous for Buddhism. A more stable Islamic state would eventually rise in Delhi in the
thirteenth century. The Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) restored order hi northern India and was much more successful
at spreading the Islamic faith.
While remaining politically divided, the smaller Hindu kingdoms of southern Indian were generally spared
the constant invasions that tore apart the north. The Chola kingdom (850-1267) became rich from sea trade and
eventually became powerful enough to extend marginal control over much of southern India. At its height the Chola
kingdom controlled Ceylon as well as most of the area from the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea. The kingdom
of Vijayanagar (1336-1565) dominated southern India after the collapse of the Chola kingdom. Harihara and Bukka,
ironically two converted Muslim emissaries from the Delhi sultan, returned to their Hindu roots and carved off their
own southern kingdom. Neither state could rival the power of the earlier Mauryan or Gupta empires.
Production and Trade in the Indian Ocean Basin
Trade within and beyond the Indian Ocean basin increasingly forged links between India and other societies.
Once farmers mastered sophisticated irrigation techniques, such as the reservoir at Bhopal, the agricultural
foundation for expanded trade was in place. This food production helped India's population double between 600
and 1500 (53 million to 105 million), which in turned fueled a corresponding urban expansion. By the fourteenth
century Delhi, with a population of over 400,000, had become the second biggest Islamic city in the world.
Increasingly specialized agricultural (i.e. cotton) and manufacturing production (i.e. high-carbon steel) followed.
Their location insured that Ceylon and southern India benefited tremendously from the trading market. Temples
served as financial, social and agricultural centers and facilitated trade. The changing patterns of the monsoon
seasons made India's central location a
perfect place to construct emporia. The caste system itself underwent a transformation as guilds became incorporated
into its complex structure. Trade also helped to spread the caste system into southern India.
The Meeting of Hindu and Islamic Traditions
The post-classical age brought profound religious change in India. The popularity of Buddhism and
Jainism decreased dramatically while Hinduism and the late-arriving Islam came to dominate society to a greater
extent than ever before. While several powerful Indian emperors had tried to make Buddhism the main religion of
India over the centuries it had never seriously competed with the more firmly entrenched Hinduism. The sacking of
the Buddhist center of Nalanda in 1196 by Islamic forces was the beginning of the end for Buddhism in India.
The continued evolution of Hinduism, especially the growth of devotional cults dedicated to Vishnu and
Shiva, helps to explain its growing popularity during these years. Worship of Vishnu, the Hindu preserver god, and
Shiva, a god of both fertility and destruction, would bring salvation. The ninth century Shiva devotee Shankara
proposed that only through disciplined logical reasoning could an individual grasp the ultimate reality of the world
spirit. Ramanuja, a later Vishnu devotee, mistrusted a coldly logical attempt to understand the reality of Brahman
and instead recommended a path of intense devotion in order to reach union with the deity.
In its early centuries in India Islam did not have the same appeal, mainly because it was the religion of the
conquerors. Plus, leading positions in society inevitably fell to Muslims, causing even greater Hindu anger. By
1500, however, about one-fourth of India's population had converted to Islam. The classic Islamic notion of the
equality of all souls was very appealing to the members of lower castes. As was the case in many other areas of the
growing dar al-Islam, Sufi mystics, because of their emphasis on a personal and emotional connection to Allah,
became the most successful missionaries. Another explanation for Islam's growing success was that it became less
exclusionary. The Bhakti movement worked to eliminate the distinction between Hinduism and Islam. Guru Kabir, a
Sufi thinker, proposed that Shiva, Vishnu and Allah were all manifestations of a single deity.
The Influence of Indian Society in Southeast Asia
The islands and mainland of southeast Asia were influenced so profoundly by Indian thought that they are
sometimes referred to as "Indianized states." Religious concepts, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic, were brought to
southeast Asia by merchants and missionaries. At the same time Indian political and cultural traditions shaped
neighboring societies. Funan, a wealthy trading kingdom along the Mekong River from the first to the sixth
century, called then- king a raja, wrote in Sanskrit, and worshipped Shiva and Vishnu. The Sumatran kingdom of
Srivijaya (670-1025) dominated a sea trade route from China to India. A myriad of kingdoms followed, as complex
as the Indian civilization from which they borrowed. Angkor in Cambodia displayed Hindu influences in its capital at
Angkor Thorn and Buddhist influences in its later capital at Angkor Wat. The powerful trading state of Melaka
became Islamic.