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How ancient India spread its culture without conquest
On a flying visit to Colombo last week, I gave the inaugural keynote address at an international conference on the cultural footprint of India across South and South-East Asia. In the annals of world history, there must be no other example of this kind of sanskritic vistaarvaad or cultural amplification, which continued over a millennium and a half — from roughly the 6th century BCE to the 12th century CE.
The remarkable thing is that this spread took place without military conquest. There are many examples in history — particularly so during colonial hegemony — of alien cultures being imposed after armed invasion. But in India, with the emergence of Buddhism around the 6th century BCE, an unprecedented philosophical export took place over most of Asia. In parallel, beginning with the Amravati period in the 2nd century BCE, through the Gupta, Pallava, Pala, and Chola empires — right up to the 12th century CE — there was the diffusion of Hindu thought and culture. Evidence of this can clearly be seen in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and beyond.
In Thailand, I have witnessed the enactment of the local Ramayana, and there are immensely popular indigenous variations of the Mahabharata too in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. The largest Hindu temple in the world, and one of only two dedicated to Brahma, is at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Champa dynasty, which ruled for a thousand years in what is present-day Vietnam, was Hindu and followed the cultural mores and practices of India, including the Sakya calendar. The Borobudur temple in Indonesia is a monumental example of the influence of Hindu philosophy and architectural principles, as is Prambanan in Java dedicated to the Hindu trinity. Bali is still a Hindu enclave in an otherwise overwhelming (earlier Buddhist) Islamic Indonesia, and remains the only place I have seen (India included), where a large statue of Bheema dominates a prominent city square. Similarly, stupas first built in India dominate the Buddhist world, and Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, dated 5th century BCE, is a beautiful example, with a Bodhi tree that originated in Gaya, India.
Sanskrit and Pali were the carriers of this cultural export. Sanskrit vocabulary and grammar exist in the Thai, Khmer, Balines and Javanese languages. The seminal text of Buddhism, Tripitaka Granth, is in Pali, as are many other key treatises. Other languages were also popular. Tamil is an officially recognised language in Malaysia and Singapore. With language went symbols and motifs (lotus, Garuda, Apsaras, Nagas), mudras (including namaste), rituals and festivals, textiles and food habits, astrology and mathematics, and even political science from Chanakya's Arthashastra.
I have often ruminated upon the reasons for this peacefully extended cultural footprint. Of course, there are the obvious reasons: maritime borders, trade and commerce, artisans, migration and pilgrimages. But to my mind, the real cause is the foundational ideology on which ancient Indian civilization was founded. It was, from its very inception, open, eclectic, inclusive, assimilatory, plural and dialogic. The remarkable Nasidiya Sukta in the Rig Veda (circa 3500 BCE), the first written Sanskrit text, contains no fiat, no diktat, but is an invitation to ideation, questioning and interrogation. The three foundational texts of Hinduism — the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras are dialogic. Each of the six systems of Hindu philosophy is a search not for divinity but for what the truth could be behind the bewildering plurality of this vast cosmos.
Moreover, Sanatana Dharma allowed for heterodoxy. The materialist Charvaka school bluntly says that the Vedas are untruths. The Tantric practices are transparently unorthodox but continue to be a part of Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism, profound and powerful religions, could be born in Bharat because there was no bar on the sanctity of protest movements. Islam, in spite of the violence and proselytisation that marked its entry into India, could grow roots here because one of the mahavakyas or great sentences underpinning our civilisation is “Udaar charitanam vasudhaiva kutumbukam” (For the big-hearted, the world is a family).
India did not need military conquest to export its culture because thousands of years ago our sages said: “Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti” (The truth is one, the wise call it by different names). We should not lose this strength, most of all within our own nation.
Pavan K Varma is an author, diplomat, and former member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha). The views expressed are personal
Source: HindustanTimes
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