La Belle Epoque 1


 * La Belle Epoque 1
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 20 January 2002

India, history of ... The third century was a period of radical change in northern India. At the beginning of the century, the northwest was divided into numerous petty kingdoms and principalities, while the northeast was under the rule of the Buddhist Palas. By SE 300 [1072 CE], the Ananite Karamid dynasty had united northern India for the first time since the age of the Guptas.

The unification of the northwest, which began in earnest with Karam Chand's accession to the throne of Udaipur in SE 194 [964 CE], was surprisingly peaceful. To be sure, it began with war; in 196, Udaipur was invaded by a coalition of princes who considered Karam Chand's teachings heretical. Although outnumbered, Karam Chand proved equal to the challenge; by SE 198 [970 CE], his would-be conquerors found themselves conquered. After the victory of Jodhpur in the autumn of 198, the Ananite kings rushed to join the standard of the charismatic prophet. By the time Karam Chand died in 211 [983 CE], he ruled all of Rajputana and Gujarat....

... Among the many reforms made by Karam Chand was the creation of a professional army. The core of this army was the semi- monastic Mourner communities of Rajputana, who were proud exponents of the Rajput warrior tradition and considered war -- like everything else -- an object of careful study. Under Karam Chand, the Mourners were welded into a fighting force that combined Roman discipline, drill and combined-arms tactics with Central Asian cavalry. Throughout third and fourth-century India, Mourner heavy cavalry, spearmen and war wagons would dominate the battlefield.

Karam Chand also began the practice of hiring Turkish mercenaries from Central Asia, even as he fought Turkish raids and incursions. Unlike the Chinese emperors, who kept their Turkish units separate from native troops, Karam Chand integrated the Turks into his army and had their officers and men drill with Mourner units. In time, the majority of the Turks assimilated to Rajput culture, with many of them adopting the Ananite faith. Among the descendants of these Turks were some of northern India's greatest scholars...

... Karam Chand had no children. Shortly before his death, he decreed that his wife, Amani, should rule after him, and that his greatest general, Kuldeep Singh, should succeed her. He further decreed that Kuldeep, and all later kings, should adopt a successor from the army or the council of state while still alive. There was some grumbling at the idea of a woman holding the throne, but Amani's wisdom and generosity were universally respected, and she was able to command the loyalty of the armies. She ruled for twenty years until her death in SE 231 [1003 CE] and was known as a great patron of poetry and scholarship. She was also a poet of note in her own right, and her Cycle of Silence is considered one of the greatest contemporary Indian verses.

Under Amani and Kuldeep, the Karamid empire expanded. In 218- 220 [1000-02 CE], Turkish raids and invasions resulted in an expedition that brought the upper Indus valley under Rajput control. By 250 [1022 CE], the empire extended to Sindh in the west and Delhi in the east. The greatest of the Karamid conquerors, however, was Kuldeep's successor Veerindar. In 265 [1037 CE], he crushed a Rashtrakuta army at Kanauj, opening all north-central India to the Karamid armies. By 277 [1049 CE], he had defeated the Palas and extended his rule all the way to East Bengal.

The Karamids would rule northern India for slightly less than a century. Their Ananite faith, however, made little penetration outside East Bengal. The Karamid kings obeyed Karam Chand's pronouncement that there should be no compulsion in matters of faith, and the people of north-central India were generally content to worship the local gods. If anything, the assimilation worked in reverse; Kuldeep II (reigned 281-307 [1053-79 CE]) moved the capital from Udaipur to Delhi, invited Hindu and Jainist scholars and poets to his court, built lavish palaces and public works, and retreated from Ananite austerity...

... The cultural changes in northwestern India during the Karamid period were as revolutionary as the political changes. Literacy steadily increased during the third century; there was no equivalent to the Khazar public school system, but it was common for older Mourners to leave their communities and wander the land as teachers, and many urban families engaged private tutors for their children. It is estimated that by 300, approximately one third of adult Ananites in India could read and write.

The social position of women also increased. In Ananite ritual, women held the position of near equals; they were permitted to teach and to lead other women in prayer, and could conduct most non-public religious ceremonies. Their status in civil society did not extend so far, but third-century Indian women owned property, practiced law and medicine, and inherited on an equal footing with male children. FN1

Another change that went almost unnoticed at the time was the prevalence of ritual cleansing. As early as 150, it was common for Mourners to ritually wash their hands prior to any occasion that required prayer. During the third century, this practice filtered down to the general population, and had special significance due to the fact that eating and childbirth were both occasions for praying. It was not until centuries later that scholars realized that the simple presence of midwives with clean hands extended the life expectancy of the average north Indian by six years... FN2

... In southern India, the third century was the height of the Chola kingdom. Time and again, the Chola armies defeated the Rashtrakutas and the remaining Pallava states, and Chola ships raided Srivijaya and Malaya. The Cholas raided for booty rather than conquest, however, and their incursions had relatively little impact on the people they attacked.

The Cheras, in contrast, spread further through peace than the Cholas did through war. The Javanese, Srivijayans and East Africans wanted the benefits of trade with India, and the Chera state -- a relatively small, polyglot kingdom with no apparent designs on its neighbors -- was considered a more reliable partner. Chera merchants, many of them Nestorians or Jews, were welcomed into the merchants' towns of African and Indonesian cities. By 300, even Sofala had its Indian quarter, and the merchants' streets were fragrant with the smells of exotic pastries and spiced meats... FN3