Buddhism in India

The Background to Buddhism 27

This migration was part of the very wide-ranging movement of

peoples of the time occurring throughout the Eurasian continent. In

contrast to earlier settlers and societies, they had major military

advantages in the use of the horse, the bow and arrow, and the chariot,

with the latter developed in the nearby Iranian plateau just before they

entered India. Though they may not have been the major agents

of destruction of the Indus civilisation, they appear to have been

involved in wars and conflicts with both the remnants of that civili-

sation and other inhabitants of the subcontinent.^3 Slowly, after about

850 BCE, they moved eastward into the north India Gangetic plains.

The Vedic peoples were pastoral nomads, with an economy

based largely on cattle-herding. They had an inclination for war-

making and their spiritual life was based on sacrifice and magic.

The Vedas themselves began as hymns to be chanted by priests at

the sacrifice to win worldly gains ranging from victory in warfare

to relief from disease to a woman’s love. It has been described as

an exuberant, this-worldly, ‘life-affirming’ religion; and so it was,

but the life it affirmed was one of warfare and acquisition which

also defined the goals sought in the sacrifice and were the subject

of most of the hymns, though later these became interspersed with

far-ranging and powerful philosophical speculation. The underlying

world-view, based on rta, a principle that interlinked the universe

was a magical one. While this collectivist magic and the sacrificial

rites may have been appropriate for a nomadic, war-like pastoral

people, they became increasingly unsuitable to the needs of the rising

agriculture-based class society, which required both peace and

commerce to develop. In Iran this ‘deva’ religious tradition of the

Indo-Europeans was contesed and overthrown by the rise of the

universalistic religion preached by Zarathushtra. In India more

complex developments took place.

Two very different cultures, the Indic and the Vedic, and a mix

of ethnic and linguistic groups, came together in the period of

social tumult and momentous transformation in north India. With

had some form of Dravidian as its main language. This is known
as the ‘Indus civilisation’, but it appears that the Mesopotamians
with whom its inhabitants traded knew it as ‘Meluhha’, a word
that later entered Sanskrit as ‘mleccha’, standing for the foreigner
or barbarian (Thapar 1979: 138). At its height, in the mature phase
between 2500–2000 BCE, it stretched for thousands of miles, with
several cities—Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira—
almost all laid out in impressive patterns, with citadels and tanks,
drains and paved streets. There was a uniformity over this vast
expanse, indicating an integrated society, but since relatively few
weapons have been discovered—particularly in contrast to the nearly
contemporaneous societies of Mesopotamia and Egypt—it can be
assumed to be quite peaceful. Some archaeologists have argued that
its integrating force must thus have been religious rather than polit-
ical; but this is a relatively meaningless claim since all societies have
been integrated by some kind of religion. Some scholars, on basis
of the associations of agricultural societies with matriarchy and
pastoral societies with patriarchy, have seen the Indus civilisation
as characterised by a matrilineal, goddess-oriented culture in con-
trast to the Vedic peoples. The excavations of the cities indicate
well-planned structures, including drainage systems, and a minimal
class society, with smaller shelters contrasting with relatively larger
ones. Trade with Mesopotamia and elsewhere, interaction with
pastoral nomads of all types, must have lent the urban centers a
cosmopolitan air and provided the basis for intellectual growth and
religious–spiritual speculation. But, since the script has not yet been
deciphered, much remains speculative (see Possehl 1979).
It is likely that the Indus civilisation declined before the entry of the
Aryans, or ‘Vedic peoples’. Quite possibly ecological devastation and
burning of the forests for bricks deprived the cities of some of the
basic resources of their economy; very likely its inhabitants moved
southward and eastward, carrying the remnants of their culture
throughout India. After them came waves of migrating peoples speak-
ing Indo-European languages, who entered India about 2000 BCE.
The first-groups were non-Rig Vedic Indic speakers. The Rig Vedic
people themselves entered the subcontinent around 1400 BCE and the
Rig Veda itself was being composed sometime between 1700 BCE
and 900 BCE (Kochar 2000: 185–86, 222; see also Witzel 2000, who
gives 1500–1000 BCE as the dates for the composition of the Rig
Veda).

26 Buddhism in India

(^3) The issue remains controversial. There is a consensus among archaeologists now
that the Aryans did not destroy the Indus civilisation; but the Rig Veda records clear
conflict, stories about Indra’s slaughter of Vrtra which seem evidence that the
Aryans destroyed dams which may well have been crucial to that civilisation (Rig
Veda, 1994: 142, 148–55). See Witzel 2000 for a refutation of the current Hindutva
thesis that the Aryans actually originated in India.