mathematicians were among the first to use negative numbers, the decimal,
and the zero. Centuries before Isaac Newton, Indian Scientist developed
their own theories of gravity. Indian astronomers knew that the earth was
round and that it rotated on its axis. If in need of medical attention, the
people of the Gupta Empire could go to free hospitals where Indian
physicians were able to perform many surgical procedures and mention 300
different operations and 20 instruments.
Customs in India
India has many customs. The practice of self-information by fire has a
strange and terrible place in the lore of India, and it brings to mind the
practice of suttee, widow burning. This barbaric survival of ancient
customs lasted in India to a late day.
In 1817 there were 706 cases of suttee in Bengal alone. This was at a
time when the British authorities were making efforts to stop the practice.
They were afraid to prohibit window burning entirely in the face of
fanatical.
Hindu addiction to tradition, and resorted to intensive persuasion. No
suttee was permitted until the prospective, victim had been examined by a
magistrate, who made sure that she was proceeding of her own free will and
urged her to give up her ghastly intention.
The great source of information in that period is a massive volume
“Hindu Manners, Customs and ceremonies” by the Abbe Dubois, a French
missionary who spent years in India at the end of the eighteenth century
and the beginning of the nineteenth. He writes:
The last king of Tanjore, who died in 1801, left behind him four
lawful wives. The Brahmins decided that two of these should be burnt with
the body of their husband, and selected the couple that should have the
preference. It would have been the everlasting shame to them and the
grossest insult to the memory of the deceased had they hesitated to accept
this singular, honor, so they seemed perfectly ready to yield to the
terrible lot which awaited them. The necessary preparations for the
obsequies were completed in a single day.
Three or four leagues from the royal residence a square pit of no
great depth, and about twelve to fifteen feet square, was excavated
Within it was erected a pyramid of sandalwood, resting on a kind of
scaffolding of the same wood. The posts which supported it were so arranged
that they could easily be removed and would thereby cause the whole
structure to collapse suddenly. At the four courners of the pit were placed
huge brass jars filled with ghee, to be thrown on the wood in order to
hasten combustion .
The following was the order of the procession as it wended its way to
the pyre. It was headed by a large force of armed soldiers. Then followed a
crowd of musicians chiefly trumpeters, who made the air ring with the
dismal sound of their instruments. Next came the king’s body borne in a
splendid open palanquin, accompanied by his guru, his principal officers,
and his nearest relatives, who were all on foot and wore no turbans in
token of mourning.
Then came two victims, each borne on a richly decorated palanquin.
They were loaded rather than decked, with jewels. Several ranks of soldiers
surrounded them to preserve order and to keep back the great crowds that
flocked in from every side.
The two queens were accompanied by some of their favorite women, with
whom they occasionally conversed.
Then followed relatives of both sexes, to whom the victims had made
valuable presents before leaving the palace. An innumerable multitude of
Brahmins and persons of all castes followed in the rear.
On reaching the spot where their fate awaited them, the victims were
required to perform the ablutions and other ceremonies proper on such
occasions and they went through the whole of them without hesitation and
without the least sign of fear. When, however, it came to walking round the
pyre, it was observed that their features underwent a sudden change.
During this interval the body of the king had been placed on the top
of the pyramid of sandalwood. The two queen, still wearing their rich
attire and ornaments, were next compelled to ascend the pyre. Lying down
beside the body of the deceased prince, one on the right and other on the
left, they joined hands across the corpse.
The officiating Brahmins then sprinkled the pile with holy water, and
emptied the jars of ghee over the wood, setting fire on it at the same
moment. The flames quickly spread and the props being removed, the whole
structure collapsed and in its fall must have crushed to death the two
unfortunate victims. Thereupon all the spectators shouted aloud for joy.
During the sixth century the Gupta Empire collapsed under the repeated
attacks of the White Huns (perhaps related to the Huns who plagued the
Roman Empire during the fifth century) India again entered a period of
political disorder; the country became divided into small warring kingdoms.
Waves of foreign invaders again entered the land; but as in the past,
Hinduism absorbed these foreign elements into Indian society. However, the
history of India took a dramatic turn when northern India fell under the
domination of Muslims who brought with them a religion and culture as
strong as Hinduism.
After years of constant raids, Muslim warriors conquered much of
northern India, where they established a Muslim kingdom in 1206 near the
city of Delhi. Almost immediately a conflict arose between the Muslim and
Hindu elements within Indian society. This was a struggle not only between
two religions, but between two distinct ways of line. The Hindus believed
in many gods, but the Muslims acknowledged only one.
The Hindus followed the rigid caste system while the Muslims believed
in the equality of all men before their god, Allah.
Although Muslim control of northern India ended at the close of the
fourteenth century, the hostilities between Hindus and Muslims in Indian
society have continued to the present.
Muslims contributed to the development of Indian culture. They left
the valuable monument of art, the great masterpiece – Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal
Of the seven Wonders of the Ancient World, two were dedicated to
sentiment in marriage: the Mausoleum, monument of a wife’s devotion to the
memory of her husband; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, erected by a husband
for the happiness of a favourite wife. Among the wonders of the modern
world, one of the most famous commemorates a husband’s devotion to a wife.
It is, of course, the incomparable Taj Mahal, the tomb that Shah Jehan
created for the beauteous Mumtaz Mahal, at the city of Agra, in India. The
French traveler Francois Bernier, who toured the East three centuries ago,
was in Agra during the 1660s, saw the building when it had been up for less
than twenty years, and wrote in his journal: “Possibly I have acquired an
Indian taste, but I am of the opinion that this monument has much more
right to be included among the wonders of the world than the pyramids of
Egypt”. Some critics have gone beyond him, declaring the Taj Mahal to be
the most beautiful edifice ever erected by man. Shah Jehan was one of the
Mogul emperors who reigned over India in golden splendour. A Moslem, he
practiced the polygamy ordained in the Koran, which permitted four wife not
counting the concubines whom it was customary for an Islamic potentate to
have in his harem. Mumtaz Mahal, young dainty, and beautiful, was the
favourite wife. Taj Mahal, therefore, is a monument to romantic sentiment
in the harem, a husband’s devotion in polygamous family life.
The Taj Mahal is the masterpieces of Mohammedan Art. That it arose on
Indian soil is explained by history. The Moglus came originally from
Central Asia, their name being a variant of the world “Mongol”. They were
Moslems, and they conquered India.
The founder of the Mogul Empire was one of the remarkable men of all
time. In martial ardor and ability to command, Baber may have been a
typical princeling of Iartary, but he was also a man of culture, the author
of perhaps best political memoirs ever written by a reigning monarch. In
December of 1525 he led his army into India. The battle took place on April
12, 1526, and proved to be one of the decisive conflicts of world history
for Baber won the victory, that gave him a permanent foothold in the land
that was to be ruled by this descendants.
Baber did not finish the work of integrating an imperial domain. But
the Moguls were lucky in the next representative of their dynasty Akbar,
known to history as Akbar The Great. He introduced a new system of
government, bringing ale the land under his direct authority naming his own
viceroys, setting up a comprehensive tax levy, keeping the provincial
military forces in the pay of the central treasury to prevent local
rebellious before they could get started.
At his death (1605) he left behind an empire so closely knit and
organized that it could continue in much the same form for another century.
By patronizing artists and architects he forwarded the development of
style and skill to the point where under his grand son, the miracle of the
Taj Mahal became possible. Akbar was succeeded by his son Sahangir, the
potentate to whom the title of “The Great Mogul” was first applied. The
imagination of the west was inflamed, by stories of the beauty, power,
luxury and oriental splendour of the Mogul Empire. Merchants, travellers,
ambassadors, missionaries – all helped to fill in the picture of the Great
Mogul and his kingdom.
Iahangir died in 1627 and the throne passed to his son, Shah Jehan.
Under his popular rule the Mogul Empire reached its height. His reign was
remembered for its order, security and justice. In 1612 he had married
Argumand Banu a cousin, and their wedded bliss until her death in 1631
constitutes one of the great love stories of the world. It was not dimmed
by the fact that Shah Jehan, in Moslem fashion, had a harem of other wives.
She was his favourite, the one he called Mumtaz Mahal, or Ornament of the
Palace”. A powerful influence with him, she was largely responsible for his
orthodox Mohammedanism, for she held strictly to the tenets of Islam Mumtaz
Mahal bore her husband fourteen children, the last of which caused her
death on June 17, 1631.
Shah Ielah reacted to the tragedy as did Artemisia on the death
Mausolus. He was so inconsolable that it was feared he would die of grief.
In fact he never recovered from the shock, although he did rouse himself
because he wanted to venerate the memory of his wife, with a suitable
monument. The greatest thing he did during the rest of his reign was to
build the Taj Mahal. As a site he chose a high bank of the Yumna River, one
of the holy rives of Hundustan, where it bends around at Agra. He summoned
the finest architects and craftsmen from all over his empire and had them
submit plans for the proposed buildings. The Portuquese Iesuists in Agra
reported that the man who won was a Venetian Geronimo Verroneo, and that
this Westerner actually erected the Taj. But that story has been rejected
by some later scholars on the grounds that the building shows no European
influence. Other accounts name a Turk or a Persian.
The basic material used was wite marble, with the wall and gates of
red sandstone, a colour scheme, that has the remarkable effect of showing
different tints at different times of the day. The building stands on a 186-
foot square with the angles cut to form on octagon. Beneath it is a raised
marble platform, extending all around and marked by delicate minarets at
each corner. Above swells the great dome, about two thirds of a sphere,
surmounted by a crescent and flanked by smaller domes, each of the walls is
cut by arches of a similar but not at all mono fonous pattern, rather, they
contribute to the unity of the whole, Light enters through marble screens.
There is an old saying that “The Moguls built like titans and finished
like jewelers”. The Taj Mahal proves the truth of the remark. Looked from a
distance, its appearance is indeed dreamlike, with a grare and balance that
make us wonder how human beings ever achieved so miraculous a result from
marble and sandstone.
After Shah Jehan the Mogul Empire had no place to go except downward.
This great ruler lived to see the first bitter fruits of failure, for his
sons rebelled against him, and the one who came out on top, Aurangzeb,
deposed him and threw him into prison.
Then Aurangzeb moved the capital of the Mogul Empire from Agra to
Delhi. For seven years Shah Jehan remained in a cell in the fort at Agra,
protesting against the unfilial behaviour of the new emperor, and spending
much of his time gazing across at the Taj Mahal where the symbol of his
best days lay Buried. Shah Iahan died in 1658 and finally left prison to
lie by the side of Mumtaz Mahal in her glorious tomb. Aurangzeb maintained
his throne for fifty years, the last Mogul of any consequence. On his death
in 1767 fierce fighting among his sons broke out. Final ruin came in 1739
when the powerful king of Persia, Nadir Shah, invaded Hundustan. From then
on the Mogul Empire of Akbar, Yahangir, and Shah Jehan, was but a memory,
but it had left behind a colorful page of history climaxed by the enduring
monument that attracts and charms visitors to this day that wonder the
modern world, the Taj Mahal.
But India is famous not only for this monument of art – It has other
wonderful masterpieces of architecture.
Art of India
Indian civilization was one of the oldest and most original in the
East. Her contribution to world culture was great. In the ancient times,
India was famed for her wonderful miracles, vast natural resources and
craft works.
In the 3rd century b.c. almost the whole Hindostan peninsula and some
neighbouring countries, were united into one gigantic empire under the
powerful king, Ashoch (273).
Only stone edifies in that period have survived till nowadays: temples
and cells, stone-shrines. Shrines were erected of brick and stone in the
form of hemisphere, surrounding by the fence with 4 gates in it.
Stone statues served as adornments of architecture and more often were
created in the form of scenic relief. Motions, gestures and poses of the
people on the relief are extremely expressive and graceful. That was under
the influence of the dance art, widely spread and popular in India.
Religious architecture of the Ashoch period is represented by cave
complexes and temples. Such temples were usually carved in the picturesque
and secluded places out of the solid rock massif. Excavations in the North
– West India brought the discovery of the wonderful statues created in the
1st century a.d.. These were mainly the statues of Buddha. Influence of
the Greco-Roman art was great here.
Figures of Buddha resemble much statues of the Roman emperors and some
of the Greek gods. They were made by Greek masters who lived in Indian and
adopted Indian religions. Later on the Indian apprentices of Greek masters
started sculpting Buddha according to the notion of the Indian people:
sitting with his legs crossed. Period of the blossoming Indian culture
dates back to the 4th –6th centuries a.d. Remarkable specimen of the
ancient Indian painting have survived in Buddhist temples and monasteries
in Adjanta. Walls, ceilings, pillars in these temples are painted with the
scenes from Buddhist legends and are decorated with statues and carving.
Murals in Adjanta are the visual encyclopaedia of life of the ancient
Indian people.
Conclusion
The Indian civilization was one of the oldest and most original in the
last. Its contribution to the culture of human kind is immense. At a very
early stage, ancient India maintained close cultural contacts with many
countries of the ancient Orient and with the Greco-Roman World.
Ancient traditions are highly viable in India and it is therefore not
surprising that many achievements of the ancient Indian civilization long
outlived the epoch of antiquity becoming an important component of the
country’s modern culture and of world civilizations.
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