History of India – 1.1.3.1
Environment in India upto c. A.D. 650
GLOSSARY
Upanishads – Philosophical texts considered to be an early source of Hindu religion.
Vaiseshika – One of the six Hindu schools of philosophy that postulates that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of atoms.
Arthasastra – An ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy presumed to be written by Chanaky; a significant storehouse of knowledge on the Maurya period..
Ayurveda – A system of traditional medicine based on plants and herbs native to India and a form of alternative medicine.
Rig Veda – The earliest of the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas; it is a collection of Sanskrit hymns.
Dhamma – Universal law of natureand non-violence as proposed and propagated by Buddha and later Asoka.
Mauryas – A powerful Indian dynasty that ruled from 324 to 185 BC; established by Chandra Gupta Maurya who extended the empire to the trans-Indus region. It was one of the world’s largest empires during the time of King Asoka
Aryabhatta – (476 – 550 AD) – Mathematician-astronomer of the Gupta period who made significant and path-breaking contributions in both fields; wrote the Arya Siddhanta and Aryabhatiya.
Brihat Samhita – An encyclopedia of astrology and almost all other subjects like eclipses, rainfall, planetary movements written by Varahamihira based on knowledge of the ancient sastras.
Amarakosa – Ancient Indian lexicon written in Sanskrit by Amarasingha who was presumed to have been one of the ‘Navaratnas’ at the court of Chandragupta II.
OBJECTIVES
The students will
- Explore the relationship between nature and society in ancient India
- Learn about the sources of knowledge about nature and natural forces
- Understand the various philosophies related to the natural world
SUMMARY
Environment in early Indian history can be studied against the background of societies that thrived or faced extinction, due to natural causes as well as man–made disasters and also with extensive investigations carried out by palaeogeologists. There was a symbiotic relation between human society and nature. Nature was seen as a sustainer, retainer and a haven for all living creatures and its utility and hostility was not unknown to the people. All living creatures and living beings were considered as equal and had equal right to exist according to both Buddhism and Jainism. Thus there was a trend towards preservation of natural resources and its optimal utilization.
Even the task of naming plant species, often rare, by their uses and visibility, was completed by the Āyurvedic physicians and categorized in general in the Amarakoṣa.
The Arthasastra, the Brihat Samhita, the Susruta Samhita and the Amarakosa were important texts that informed the people with knowledge about nature and its variegated facets. They gave information about the natural conditions that are conducive to the construction of a fort, temple or palace, as well as the abnormal conditions of seasons that would lead to epidemics or the importance of planting trees. Thus the attempt was to derive benefit from nature.
Public works were constructed according to plans which reveal a general understanding of civic environment for healthy settlements.
A very significant aspect of discussion in the Brhatsamhitā is related to natural disasters like earthquake.
FAQs
1. How did the people of ancient India look upon nature?
Basically It was the basic human concern for a better existence in their natural surroundings which led to their engagements with nature and environment. Nature was considered to be a source of sustenance, and of resources for life, as well as somethingwithin which human lives thrived.
2. Explain the philosophical perspective of nature in the Rig Veda.
The most important idea that was propounded for the first time in the Rig Veda was the concept of “Natural Law” - Rita, which was elaborated in the Cakkvatti Sihānāda Suttānta of Digha Nikāya. The idea was later developed in the Aṭṭaśālini, into the concept of Pañca Niyama or the Five Principal forces regulating the Universe, which were considered to be the spokes of the “Celestial Wheel” of Natural Law.
3. Point out the reflection of nature in Buddhist art.
Buddhist art represents a complete world with depictions of natural environment, full of plants, flowers and all the creatures of the world. These are visible testimonials not only to the early Indian artists’ appreciation for nature but of the early religious and philosophical conditioning, where the genesis of the human mind and physique is conceptualized within a greater orbit of the environment. In Buddhist iconography the symbolism of the orbit of universe under the celestial order covering the entire life-cycle under its umbrella– is most emphatically represented.
4.How has the Arthasastra addressed the significance of nature?
. The discussions in the Arthasastra were oriented towards concerns for a healthy environment for human settlements and the utilization of and conservation of natural resources, which were related to the good governance of the rastra (political unit). The text suggestedrules for planning villages and towns, with roughly estimated and regulated numbers of population, and stated that thedemarcation of borders was rendered easier by choice of natural surroundings like a river or a mountain or forests. The text also gave instructions for the nurturing of natural surroundings.
5. What were the forces that were considered to cause earthquakes?
Varahamihira in his Brihat Samhita stated that Vayu, Indra, Agni and Varuna were the four primary forces causing earthquakes in different zones.
6. What was the approach of the Caraka Samhita to disease?
Observations of both normal and abnormal conditions of nature were included in Caraka Samhitā. It stated that in abnormal conditions of the seasons there would be a loss of the good effect on herbs. Hence herbs should be extracted before destruction and loss of nutrients in the earth. Caraka contained some reference to pollution and unseasonal conditions leading to spread of diseases. The idea was that common factors like air, water, place and time in one community, if contaminated would cause epidemics. A curious feature of the observances in the Caraka Samhita are that rational thoughts get mixed with contemporary belief systems (that were far from rational). One of the reasons for the occurrence of epidemics has been found to be human commitment of ‘sin,’ either on mass scale or individually by the ruler.
7. What does the Amarakosa deal with?
Amarakosa is a lexicon, which contains the categories that exist in the human world, the animal world and in the natural world in which there are certain sections totally dedicated to geological formations, different kinds of natural formations and natural resources also.
8. Discuss the relationship between seasons and diseases.
Both the Charaka and the Susruta Samhita contain chapters devoted to the discussions of seasons in their normal and abnormal conditions. It was clearly delineated that all normal seasons rendered people prone to certain illnesses, while the abnormal seasons heralded various serious disorders in the animal world. For example it is declared that epidemics occur due to the abnormal conditions of water or air or soil.
9. What do the Asokan edicts mention about preservation of natural resources?
The Asokan Major Rock Edict I claims that shady trees were planted on thoroughfares for the benefit of human beings and animals, while the Asokan Pillar Edict V specifiescertain species of animals, birds and fishes as inviolable.
10. Are there any references to forest conservation in early Indian literature?
It is evident that there did prevail certain ideas of forest conservation from references to the existence of the Tapovana, which was generally protected for the purposes of meditation by ascetics and weredemarcated as areas presided over by brāhmaṇa priests. Some of the area within the tapovana was again earmarked for plantations. There was also the concept of Abharāṇya – a forest where animals roamed free. The Arthaśāstra clearly mentioned that such forests were maintained with the implicit idea of safety for animate and inanimate objects.
QUIZ Complete
- The Asokan inscription that refers to a famine is located in
a)Mahasthangarh b) Sanchi c) Rajagriha
- The universal law of nature is expressed in the
a)Yagya b) Anugraha c) Dhamma
3.The Amarakosa is a
a) Treatiseb) Lexicon c) Doctrine
4. The Digha Nikaya is a
a) Vedic text b) Buddhist text c) Jain text
5.The Arthasastra prescribed one well for every
a) Ten houses b) Ten villages c) Twenty houses
6.On the confluence of Ganga and Son was situated the city of
a) Tanjore b) Rajagriha c) Pataliputra
7.In early Indian medical treatises epidemics were associated with
a)Divine retribution b) Abnormal seasons c) Earthquakes
8.The Arthasastra is presumed to have been composed during the rule of the
a) Mauryas b) Guptas c) Haryankas
9. References to diseases are found in the
a) Brihat Samhita b) Susruta Samhita c) Sangika Sutra
10.Vayu, Indra, Agni and Varuna were believed to have caused
a) Floods b) Earthquakes c) Epidemics
ASSIGNMENT
- What was the level of environment consciousness of early Indian man that led him to take different approaches to nature?
2. Elucidate the relationship of nature and non-violence in early Indian philosophy.
- Discuss the significance of the Brihat Samhita in understanding the attitudes that prevailed about environment.
- What are the administrative measures suggested by the Arthashastra to ensure a healthy environment around settlements?
- Analyse the information provided by the Caraka and Susruta Samhitas that reveal the depth of early Indian perception of nature.
History of India – 1.1.3.1
Environment in India upto c. A.D. 650
Environment in early Indian history
This is a very complex issue and involves taking recourse to different types of perspectives and different kinds of sources. There are different kinds of approaches so far as history of environment is concerned. One approach would be to look at the actual environment in which past societies have thrived or got extinguished in the processes due to natural and man-made disasters. For that we have to involve a lot of different kinds of researches taking recourse to multidisciplinary orientation using such investigating tools for example palynological, climatic, hydrological, geological researches.
Historical perspective
History is to do with human beings and in order to understand human concerns about environment we have to look at the sources which are related, which reflect how human beings had engaged in the past with their own surroundings. Every society has recorded their experiences of the nature, their environment and the natural disasters in their own ways and ancient Indian history is no exception.
Basically it is the human concern for existence and better existence in their natural surroundings which led to such human engagements with nature and environment. And this is reflected in practical ways also. So, nature has been looked at as a source of sustenance, as a source of resources for life, as well as one set up within which human lives thrives.
We are looking at a society which traversed a temporal zone as well ??as faziel zone. Different kinds of societies, different kinds of sections within the societies would engage with environment in different ways. And it all arose out of the practical necessity of human beings in the daily life.
In the early Indian context we have to also understand the fact that the kind of anxieties that the human societies facing today in the 21st century, would not have been there. Because now a days that the kind of depletion of the ozone layer or the natural forest cover that has led to this kind of concerns, was not there. So population was at its minimum, life styles were so simple that exploitation of nature was at its minimum. So the considerations that were there was actually for betterment of life. And nature and environment was the best resource that human being had.
We find that more of an orientation of exploitation of nature. But also on the other hand, especially in the early Indian context and among all the earliest civilizations there was the evolution of philosophy of nature, of a conception of man in nature, vis-à-vis man and nature. So nature and environment was integral to human existence. That was also understood in the early Indian scope of engagements.
Categorization of sources
Philosophical Perspective
The sources can be categorized. There are about three or four different perspectives in different kinds of sources. The first perspective would be the philosophical perspective relating to nature as a symbol of the haven in which human and animal world thrived. That we get from the Vedic summations for example, in the Upanishads, in the Buddhist and Jain canonical texts as well as in the philosophical schools like Vaisashika and Sangika Sutras. That is the first category.
Administrative perspective
Secondly we have a very practical category that is related to administration and the political directives. That we get from Arthasastra and other texts of course, but Arthasastra actually covers the subject so well that we do not really need to traverse beyond it.
Medical texts
The third category would be the medical texts, the concerns of medical science or Ayurveda - human health and environment, the co-relations. That is the third kind of texts.
Lexicons
The fourth kind of text would be the lexicons in shows the reflections of man’s requirement to graph environment for the daily ritualistic and astrological purposes as well as in order to evolve into a knowledge system tool about nature. That is got from Brihat Samhita and from Amarakosa. So these few texts could be representative of the myriads of ways in which human mind had engaged with nature.
Philosophy of nature
Both in the Vedic Samhitas as well as in Buddhism and Jainism there was the burgeoning of a philosophy in which nature is actually emerging as omnipotent force. For example for the first time probably in the history of mankind, the concepts of a universal law of nature in the Rig Veda like the concept of Rita. This has been enlarged upon in the Buddhist philosophy also. And later on from this Buddhist philosophy in the Digha Nikaya section of Cakkavatti Sihanada Suttanta, where we find that there is a universal law of nature which is the Dhamma, which is the core of Dhamma.
In the Attasalini there was the conception of Panchanimaya, within which we find at least one, which is the beja nimayama, second which is the ritu nimayama. From this there was the emergence of the idea that nature was the controlling force of sustenance of the universe. Then again there are other concepts in Buddhist and Jaina sources about non-violence.
Non-violence vis-à-vis nature
It is more to do with how the heretics (generally these are called heretic religions, because they did not conform to the Vedic yagnya and rituals) broke away from that format is the kind of reaction against the profound killings of animals and felling of trees and other things, which was conducted in the process of performing a yagnya in the Brahminical rights. So, as a reaction to that, there is this heretic preponderance on non-violence. But that also stems from this feeling of probably the sustenance of all creatures equally in the universe. They believed in the equal rights of every living creature.
In the Samyutta Nikaya that non harm to all living creatures was a fundamental rule of the followers of Buddhism and that was also very true for Jainism. Again in the Kutadanta Sutta for example we find that how Buddha had propounded that he was only for those kinds of sacrifices in which there would be neither felling of trees, no killing of animals nor even mowing down of grass for the purposes of the sacrifice. So these are certain thing which of course relate to the concept of nature and non violence.
Reflection of Ahimsa in the artistic expressions
In the early form of art which is related to Buddhism and the idea of religion was transpiring into the artistic forms, that there was this philosophy of the continuum between the animal and the natural world and the cognizance that human life, all the creatures were nurtured within the macrocosm of universe in an environmental orbit. This probably leads to the idea in envisioning the Boddhisatva Puddaparam for example in the Ajanta paintings as standing in the midst of the ocean in the bottom, the nether world at the bottom and the heaven at the top and the creatures were in between. So, this continuum of life within which was the essence of human being and also the essence of Godhead was visualized. So this is what is at the core of Indian art too. Now this starts with the Buddhist art, but later on it is continued in other sectarian arts too.
Practical approach to nature relating to human society in Arthasastra
Arthasastra is a kind of a hand book for the rulers. It contains a lot of suggestions about how a king should rule his kingdom. This text is said to be composed about the same time when the Mauryas came to power. At that time in the middle Ganga valley region a lot of farming settlements were organizing themselves into revenue earning sources and based on that kind of economic foundations, Mauryan Empire was getting built up slowly.