#India Before The Advent Of Islam

 India Before the Advent of Islam

From ancient eras continuous processes of migration into India were at work and a free society continued to evolve from early times. The vedas (knowledge) exhorted worship of Nature by man, but otherwise man was free from the hold of high priests.

The early eras of Vedism and of the freely evolving society came to an end by 900 BC with the emergence of high priests, the Brahmins, who during the next four centuries institutionalised sacrifices and caste divisions. In the 5th century BC, Gautama, the Buddha (the Enlightened one), rejected the tyranny of caste-system, affirmed human equality, and above all he taught his people the right course of action and the courage of dying without killing. For over two thousand years Buddha's words of patience, of tolerance and of love have directly or indirectly influenced one half of the civilized world. 

And today the other half is beginning to listen to them. His contemporary, Vardhamana (The Prosperous'), the Mahavira (Great Hero), condemned caste divisions, also rejected the Brahminical blood-shedding sacrifices, and founded Jainism based on peace and pacifism.

The rise of the Imperial Guptas in the 4th century AD, marked the beginning of a transition from Ancient India' to Medieval India'. The new upsurge, binding the priest and the prince together, consolidated the power of the Imperial Guptas. In terms of its cultural impact and significant achievements, the glory of the Guptas was a milestone between the early medieval eras and the later historical eras of the Muslim Period.

A long period of nearly half a millennium intervened between the decline of the

Guptas (6th century AD) and the establishment of Muslim power in Northern India (12th century AD), though the advent of the Arab Muslims in Sindh occurred earlier in the 8th century AD. This period of about six centuries intervening between the Imperial Guptas and the establishment of the Muslim power is characterized as the period of decline', both political and social. The factors/conditions which were mainly responsible for the general decline both on human and material fronts on the eve of Muslim conquest of India are listed below:

1.Political Conditions: For about six centuries after the death of Harsha (647 AD) there was no cential government for the whole of the country that could think and act for the entire subcontinent. As a matter of policy the state was divided into provinces and each province was headed by a Raja. Whenever, they found a weak king on the throne they declared themselves independent. They even tried to come on the throne and thus founded new dynasties, which very frequently came into existence. 

These rulers were very ambitious and wanted to have as much area under their control, as possibly they could. The result of this greed was that they usually fought with each other and thus wasted both energy and resources. The result was that no ruler could have an extensive empire for himself.

2.Religious Conditions: Before the advent of Islam India was dominated by three major religions i.e. Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. The three religions of India lacked uniformity and suffered due to great deal of differences amongst them. Hinduism was the dominant and main religion of the people and most of the kings of this period were also Hindus. Both Buddhism and Jainism were on the decline. One  reason for this was that the Rajas which dominated India during this period did not believe in the philosophy of non-violence which these religions preached. Still there was perfect religious freedom. No ruler discriminated against any religion and provided every facility to propagate all religions without fear or hindrance. There were, therefore, no communal clashes. The individual Hindu was free to decide for himself what kind of god he would worship. To many Hindus there were many gods each with different, responsibilities. The principal gods were Brahma-the creator,  Vishnu-the preserver and Shiva-the destroyer.

To attract masses to their own religion, the Brahmins began to worship as gods their national heroes like Rama and Krishna and gave place to Gautam Buddha as a god among their own gods. The result was that the innocent people began to worship the national heroes as gods. The Brahmins gave great prominence to rituals and

ceremonies in religious life. And since most of these rites and ceremonies could be performed by the Brahmins alone, they occupied a very powerful position in the society.

3.Social Conditions: There was a total collapse of the social order. The Hindu society consisted of many castes, and sub-castes, though theoretically it recognized only the four main castes-the Brahmin, the Khatri, the Vesh and the Sudar. It was believed that the god Brahma created people belonging to the different castes from different parts of his body and hence they were assigned work in the society.

Accordingly. Brahmins, the highest caste, were born out of the head of god Brahma  so they were regarded as the custodians of all spiritual knowledge-the priests. It was under the guidance of the Brahmins that people could attain salvation. The Khatris were supposed to have sprung from the arms of god Brahma and they were assigned work in the society performed by hands ie. they were warriors and nobles.

The Veshs were born out of the stomach of god Brahma and hence they were given the profession for stomach i.e. they were farmers, herdsmen, traders, artisans and, later, minor officials. Sudars, the lowest caste, grew out of the feet of god Brahma and were labourers, servants and slaves, the out-castes or untouchables.

Khatris were one of the privileged castes. The lower castes were kept in a state of degradation. Al-Biruni informs us that when a Vesh or a Sudar was proved to have recited the Vedas, his tongue was cut pff as a punishment. In other words, the Sudars were like beasts of burden in the Hindu society. There were no inter-marriages between the various castes, and as for the Sudars, even their touch was considered unclean.

Opposed to this was the Buddhist ideal of life which laid stress on the self-efforts of the individual for personal salvation, as well as on the equality of man in social life. In their struggle against, Buddhism, Brahmins made caste system very rigid. The result was that in place of the four original castes, a number of new sub-castes sprang up.

Birth of a girl was not cherished in the family. For a common family the birth ot such a child was regarded as a bad omen. The system of infanticide had come to stay. The women were divided into two categories; on the one hand were those who belonged upper classes, while on the other were lower classes women. The women of the upper classes took a prominent share in administration and in social life. They moved freely and got higher education as well. On the other hand, the society had put many restrictions on the woman belonging to the lower classes and they enjoyed less respect than those of the upper classes. But in both the cases the women were not considered at par with men. They were considered definitely inferior as compared  with men.

The cruel custom of sati was in practice, according to which Hindu widows were obligated to burn themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands. It was believed that by burning herself on the funeral pyre, a widow sanctified her ancestors, removed the sins of her husband and got rest for herself for ages to come. She was believed to live in heaven after death.

4.Economic Conditions: From economic point of view the people could  be divided into two categories. On one hand there were the kings and landlords as well as the Provincial governors and also the rich few. They lived life of pleasure and joy All comforts of life of those days were available to them. The revenue collected by them was spent by them on their own comforts. Trade, both internal and external, was sound professions and thus the trading class was quite happy and rich.

But their number was not large. On the whole, the vast majority of the people was poor and lived a simple life. Agriculture was their main occupation. They lived in the Villages which were not well developed. In addition, they did not know shut the comforts of life. They lived a simple life in kacha houses.

5. Education and Literature: All over the country there were schools and college and the people, in general, were well-educated. There was a residential university at Nalanda in Bihar where thousands of students received education free of any charge. Vikramshila Gn Bihar), Kashi (Benaras), Ujain and several other places were famous centres of learning. There were very able teachers and professors in the country. Even scholars from outside came to India to receive education. Excellent poems and dramas, fables and parables, medicine, chemistry, astronomy and other sciences were written. Vernacular literature developed and languages like Hindi, Bengali, Gujrati etc., made great progress.

6.Architecture: While religion fostered king-worship, humbleness. self-denial, renunciation, and a host of other virtues admired during times of peace and prosperity, it also gave a great impetus to artistic expression of all kinds. Along with other forms of arts, medieval Hinduism expressed itself luxuriantly in temple architecture. Grand and attractive temples like the Martand Sun temple of Kashmir the Khajuraho Vishnu temple of Central India, the rich Jain temple of Mt. Abu, and the famous Shiva and Vaishnava temples of South India, wore built by them.

In short, on the eve of the Muslim conquest, the country was in a chaotic condition, and there was the scene of great political disturbances.