Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography by Sanjeev Sanyal Page A
Authors: Sanjeev Sanyal
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to fifth
century BC ), we find that a number of urban clusters are
reaching scales that are comparable to the Harappan cities. Kausambi, near
today’s Allahabad, is said to have been founded after the king of
Hastinapur, a descendant of the Pandavas, who was forced by a devastating flood to
shift his capital further east. Spread over an area of 150-200 hectares, Kausambi
had a population of around 36,000 people at its height. 12 Other major cities like Rajagir and Sravasti were on a similar scale. These are
comparable to Mohenjodaro, the largest of the Harappan sites, which had a population
of around 40,000. It is difficult toestimate the total
population of the subcontinent at this time but it was probably in the range of 30
million.
The late Iron Age towns were fortified
with moats and ramparts. Wood and mud-bricks were the common building material but
the Harappan technology of kiln-fired bricks had not been forgotten. Kausambi, for
instance, shows extensive use of kiln-fired bricks. The towns also have drains,
soakage pits and other urban amenities, albeit of a design that is different from
the Indus Valley era. However, the courtyard continues to be the basic prototype for
houses while streets were systematically levelled to allow wheeled traffic.
Merchant boats would have plied the
Ganga, especially between Kausambi, Kashi and Pataliputra (modern Patna). There were
ocean-going ships as well. The legend of prince Vijaya in the Mahavamsa suggests
coastal trade links along the Bay of Bengal extending from Bengal to Sri Lanka. Both
the Uttara Path and the Dakshina Path would have been busy highways, with the people
plying these trade routes carrying not just goods but also ideas, because this was
also a time of great intellectual expansion. The philosophies of the Upanishads,
Mahavira and Gautam Buddha are all products of this milieu.
The Buddha was born in Kapilavastu (on
the Indo–Nepal border) but he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, just
south of the old Magadhan capital of Rajgir. However, he did not deliver his first
sermon in Bodh Gaya, the nearby towns and villages or even in the royal capital of
Rajgir. Instead, he headed west to Varanasi (also called Kashi). Why did he go all
the way to Varanasi to spread his message?
According to historian Vidula Jayaswal,
this was a naturalchoice since Varanasi was an important place
for the exchange of both goods and ideas because it stood at the crossroads between
the Uttara Path and a highway that came down from the Himalayas and then continued
south as the Dakshina Path. In some ways, this remains true to this day as the
east–west National Highway 2 meets the north–south National
Highway 7 at Varanasi. The latter then runs all the way down to the southern tip of
India. The alignment of the modern north–south highway runs somewhat east
of the ancient trade route but it is amazing how the logic of India’s
transport system has remained the same. Even when the British built the railways in
the nineteenth century, they used Mughalsarai—just outside
Varanasi—as the nerve-centre of the railway network.
When the Buddha went there in the sixth
century BC , Varanasi was already a large urban settlement
built on the Ganga. The city’s name is derived from the fact that it was
built between where the Varuna and the Asi streams flow into the sacred river. The
Varuna is still a discernible stream but, sadly, the Asi has been reduced to a
polluted municipal drain.
It was in a deer park at Sarnath, just
outside the city, that the Buddha delivered his first sermon. As an important
crossroads the place was already an established hub of commercial and intellectual
activity by this time, which is precisely what attracted him to it. Tourists
visiting the Buddhist archaeological site at Sarnath often do not realize that the
spot is sacred to other religious traditions too. Just
century BC ), we find that a number of urban clusters are
reaching scales that are comparable to the Harappan cities. Kausambi, near
today’s Allahabad, is said to have been founded after the king of
Hastinapur, a descendant of the Pandavas, who was forced by a devastating flood to
shift his capital further east. Spread over an area of 150-200 hectares, Kausambi
had a population of around 36,000 people at its height. 12 Other major cities like Rajagir and Sravasti were on a similar scale. These are
comparable to Mohenjodaro, the largest of the Harappan sites, which had a population
of around 40,000. It is difficult toestimate the total
population of the subcontinent at this time but it was probably in the range of 30
million.
The late Iron Age towns were fortified
with moats and ramparts. Wood and mud-bricks were the common building material but
the Harappan technology of kiln-fired bricks had not been forgotten. Kausambi, for
instance, shows extensive use of kiln-fired bricks. The towns also have drains,
soakage pits and other urban amenities, albeit of a design that is different from
the Indus Valley era. However, the courtyard continues to be the basic prototype for
houses while streets were systematically levelled to allow wheeled traffic.
Merchant boats would have plied the
Ganga, especially between Kausambi, Kashi and Pataliputra (modern Patna). There were
ocean-going ships as well. The legend of prince Vijaya in the Mahavamsa suggests
coastal trade links along the Bay of Bengal extending from Bengal to Sri Lanka. Both
the Uttara Path and the Dakshina Path would have been busy highways, with the people
plying these trade routes carrying not just goods but also ideas, because this was
also a time of great intellectual expansion. The philosophies of the Upanishads,
Mahavira and Gautam Buddha are all products of this milieu.
The Buddha was born in Kapilavastu (on
the Indo–Nepal border) but he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, just
south of the old Magadhan capital of Rajgir. However, he did not deliver his first
sermon in Bodh Gaya, the nearby towns and villages or even in the royal capital of
Rajgir. Instead, he headed west to Varanasi (also called Kashi). Why did he go all
the way to Varanasi to spread his message?
According to historian Vidula Jayaswal,
this was a naturalchoice since Varanasi was an important place
for the exchange of both goods and ideas because it stood at the crossroads between
the Uttara Path and a highway that came down from the Himalayas and then continued
south as the Dakshina Path. In some ways, this remains true to this day as the
east–west National Highway 2 meets the north–south National
Highway 7 at Varanasi. The latter then runs all the way down to the southern tip of
India. The alignment of the modern north–south highway runs somewhat east
of the ancient trade route but it is amazing how the logic of India’s
transport system has remained the same. Even when the British built the railways in
the nineteenth century, they used Mughalsarai—just outside
Varanasi—as the nerve-centre of the railway network.
When the Buddha went there in the sixth
century BC , Varanasi was already a large urban settlement
built on the Ganga. The city’s name is derived from the fact that it was
built between where the Varuna and the Asi streams flow into the sacred river. The
Varuna is still a discernible stream but, sadly, the Asi has been reduced to a
polluted municipal drain.
It was in a deer park at Sarnath, just
outside the city, that the Buddha delivered his first sermon. As an important
crossroads the place was already an established hub of commercial and intellectual
activity by this time, which is precisely what attracted him to it. Tourists
visiting the Buddhist archaeological site at Sarnath often do not realize that the
spot is sacred to other religious traditions too. Just
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