Lecture 10—Iran and India Before Islam
Iran: The Parthians
The Parthian Dynasty (247 BC-223 AD) arose in the eastern Iranian province of Parthia in Seleucid times and eventually retook most of the old lands of the Achaemenid empire, only to end up in a grinding, destructive series of wars with Rome which stalemated it in the west. They continued Achaemenid tolerance of other relgions and cultures, though they also upheld Zoroastrianism as the dynasty's cult. In their last century, they emphasized Iranian traditions over others, perhaps in response to endless war with Rome. In their last years, the empire fragmented due to weakness from endless wars with Rome and their vassals broke free; the Sasanid Empire was founded by one such vassal.
The Sasanid Empire (224-651 AD)
Origins: The Sasanids were Persian in ancestry and rejected even the Parthians as too foreign, following a policy of intolerant nationalism. The early kings strengthened royal authority, defeated the Romans (somewhat) and centralized and rationalized tax collecting, the bureaucracy, and the military. With the division of Rome into two halves, the Sasanids launched into centuries of pointless, fruitless wars with Byzantium which only succeeded in setting up both empires for a curb stomping by Islam in the 7th century. Unlike Byzantium, however, the rise of Islam totally destroyed the Sasanids.
Society and Economy: The extended family was the basic social unit and society was divided between the elite classes: priests, warriors, scribes—and the common folk. The basis of the economy was agriculture and the upper class increasingly monopolized the land. This crushed down the commoners. Trade flourished, making merchants and the royal family wealthy (through trade taxes). Sasanid aristocratic culture drew on many foreign influences despite royal rhetoric and nationalism.
Religion:
Zoroastrian Revival: The Sasanids deliberately strengthened Zoroastrianism as part of their Persian nationalism. Chief Priest (Mobar) Tosar (the first under the Sasanids, 225-239 AD) instituted a state church and began to comple an authoritative, written canon of the Avesta, the holy texts of Zoroastrianism. He also instituted a calendar reform. His successor Mobar Kartir (239-293 AD) set out to convert Pagans, Christians, Buddhists and especially the Manicheans, to Zoroastrianism.
Manichaeism: Mani (216-77 AD) was born of a Parthian family, raised in Babylonia. He was a cosmopolitan speaker of many languages. His teachings, Manichaeism, cast itself as the root from which Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism had emerged, a vision of a universe torn by dualities—the good world of the spirit against the evil material world, Ahura-Mazda against Ahriman. He may have been the first person in history to deliberately set out to create a religion. He called his system "Justice" and was executed as a heretic by Mobar Kartir. It spread across Europe and Asia (Saint Augustine was originally a Manichean!)
Zoroastrian Orthodoxy: The Zoroastrian church couldn't destroy Manicheaism, but it did weather it, becoming the official religion of the empire and dominating its religious life.
Mazdakite Revolt: Economic inequality led to the preachings of Mazdak in the fifth and sixth century. Mazdak denounced material wealth and preached asceticism and social justice through wealth redistribution. . Ultimately, they were massacred by the forces of Choroses Anosharvan, the most powerful of the Sasanids.
India: Golden Age of the Guptas (320-550 AD): This is the 'classical' age of India, the symbolic equivalent to Han China, Augustan Rome, or Periclean Greece. The peace and stability of Gupta rule allowed Indian culture the space to take on its archetypical form.
Gupta Rule: The dynasty was founded by Chandragupta (ca 320-330 AD) but it was under his son Samudragupta and especially his grandson Chandragupta (r. ca. 375-415 AD) that the dynasty rose to dominate India. The Guptas controlled all of Northern and Western India, though they tended to turn defeated kings into vassals rather than totally absorbing their lands. By 500 AD, however, Huns overran western India and by 550, the empire collapsed. No one else would unify as large a piece of India before the Moslem invasions began around 1000 AD.
Gupta Culture: With Rome in decline, India's main contacts were with eastern and southeast Asia and mainly as a cultural transmitter. Gupta architecture, painting, and literature all flourished. This was the age of Kalidasa, the 'Shakespeare' of Sanskrit literature. It was a time of emphasis on education: religious literature, prose and poetic composition, grammar, logic, medicine, and metaphysics. Chess is invented at this time. This is also the time of the creation of the system of numbers referred to in the West today as 'Arabic numerals'.
The Development of "Classical" Traditions in Indian Civilization (ca. 300-1000 AD): The Guptas supported Brahmanic traditions and Vishnu worship instead of Buddhism, which declined; this is the time of the full synthesis of "Hinduism" and Indian culture.
Society: This is the period in which the hierarchical nature of Indian society solidified. The Dharmashastra of Manu dates from about 200 AD; it lays out the four-class (varna) system of society. Every person is born into their life status due to karma from a previous life. Every station has its particular dharma—class-determined duties and responsibilities. The old Vedic system of Brahmin (Priest)/ Kshatriya (Warrior)/Vaishya (Tradesperson)/Shudra (Servant) with non-Aryan "outcastes" served to guarantee the power and place of the upper classes. There was limited social mobility; princes who rose to power from the lower classes ended up being regarded as Kshatriya eventually.
Jatis: Each class was divided into smaller groups, called jatis. These divisions reflected specific occupations within the classes. Jati groups are hereditary and distinguished by three kinds of regulations: commensality (one may only eat with people of the same or a higher group), endogamy (one may only marry members of the same group) and trade/craft limitations (one may only practice one's group's trade). It is the Jati who are the 'castes' referred to in English accounts of Hinduism.
Adaptability: The Caste System could assimilate any foreigners by tucking them into new castes. It maintained social stability and allowed identification of others by dress. It was also the logical result of the idea of karma.
Religion:
Hindu Religious Life: In Gupta times, Hindu religious life saw the rise of cults devoted to specific dieties, especially Vishnu, Shiva, and the Goddess—most dieties were seen as aspects of one of these. Bhakti—"loving devotion—was a form of worship which arises in significance in this time. It was a form of meditative practice intended to lead one to loving devotion to one's god. The main difference between bhakti philosophy and all others is that the goal is also the means of attaining the goal. In other words, bhakti, devotional service to the Supreme, is attained by engaging in devotional service to the Supreme. The difference between the starting and concluding stages is that in the beginning the activity of bhakti is a forced engagement, whereas in the conclusion it is a spontaneous, loving reciprocation. Of especial importance is the rise of devotional poetry, often expressing pre-Aryan religious sentiments, and the Puranas, a collection of religious texts central to modern 'grass roots' religious worship. Most Hindus worship some particular diety as the Supreme Lord but also venerate the others, as part of the idea that gods manifest at many levels of reality in different forms; the lesser is part of the greater. Even nature can be a manifestation of the divine.
Buddhist Religious Life: In this period, Mahayana and Therevada movements solidified and spread to other areas.
Mahayana: Mahayana ("Greater Vehicle") emerges as a movement in the first century BC. Its proponents distinguished it from the monk-driven forms of practice of earlier centuries. Buddhas were seen as manifestations of a single principle of ultimate reality and stressed Buddha's compassion. The highest goal was not nirvana but to become a boddhisatva—one who turns back from nirvana to help all other beings become enlightened. Salvation becomes possible through dedication to the boddhisatvas. The most important Buddha was Amida Buddha, who presided over the Pure Land, a heaven. Mahayana Buddhism predominated in China and Central Asia and spread from there to Korea and Japan.
Therevada: The older "Way of the Elders" focused on the monastic community but taught that service and gifts to the monks was a major source of merit for the laity. Therevada emphasized the monastic lifestyle of contemplation and the study of Buddhist scriptures. It rejected Mahayana claims of the merit of later scriptures. India passed Therevada Buddhism to Ceylon, Burma, and parts of Southeast Asia.