Art and Culture with Devdutt Pattanaik | How did invasions change Indian culture?

A migration, on the other hand, is a slow collaboration with the new place. In the case of migration, there is no immediate impact, but tensions appear slowly as the cultures of the immigrants and natives clash. The upheavals in many European countries, including the ongoing violence in the UK, reportedly caused by the immigrants from Muslim countries are cases in point.

Kinds of invasion 

Invasions can be of many kinds: raid, colonialism, and imperialism. Raiders do not want to take over the political and economic systems. They touch and go. This is what happened when Mahmud of Ghazni came to India for its wealth a thousand years ago. 

Colonisers take over the political and economic systems and also get settled in the land. It was similar to what happened when the Delhi Sultanate was established by a mamluk, Qutubuddin Aibek, after the death of invader Muizzad-Din Muhammad Ghori. 

The circumstances changed in the case of the Mughals because of their marital ties with Rajputs. Due to such marital ties, the Mughals saw themselves as locals and not as foreigners although not many natives accepted them as locals.  

Then there are imperialists, who draw wealth from a distant colony to the motherland. Italy and Britain are examples of it.  

Migrations and invasions in history 

All humans originated in Africa. The First Indians were part of the Out of Africa migration that took place 60,000 years ago. The next major migration happened 10,000 years ago when the ancestors of the Iranian farmers came to India. They introduced barley and wheat farming.

From Southeast Asia, the Austro-Asiatic ‘Munda’ people migrated over 4,000 years ago. They introduced wet-rice farming. Then came the Aryans from Eurasia via Central Asia nearly 3,500 years ago. They introduced the horse. We know of these migrations from genetic and linguistic studies.

The Persian empire regularly invaded North-Western India between the 6th-4th century BCE under Cyrus the Great and later Darius I.

They introduced the Aramaic script, which later evolved into Kharosthi script and was used for writing Prakrit and Sanskrit languages in the North-West. 

Besides, the Persian administrative practices of dividing territories into satrapies (provinces) and centralised bureaucracy were taken up by the Mauryas and the Guptas. In Mauryan times, Indians finally were inspired to invent the Brahmi script – a unique script that spread from India to Southeast Asia. Pillars were erected by kings to indicate power just like Persian Emperors. 

Foreign tribes

Later, between 300 BCE-300 CE, many foreign tribes came to India. They primarily sought to control trade routes that stretched from the Ganga river basin through the Hindu Kush mountains to Persia. These were the Greeks (Yavanas), Scythians (Sakas), Parthians (Pahlavas) and Yueh-chi (Kushans). 

Many of them patronised Buddhism and Jainism, popularised the use of coins as a trading currency, and use of stone images that became popular in Gandhara and Mathura.

During the rule of the Guptas, the Hunas (Huns) came from Central Asia in the 5th century CE. Huns were responsible for the destruction of Buddhist monasteries and the disintegration of the Gupta empire. This was also concurrent with the fall of the Roman Empire, an important trading partner for India. 

Later on, merchants became less important and agriculture rose to fill the gap. We see a gradual shift from Buddhist-mercantile culture to Brahmin-agricultural-temple culture. Sanskrit became the language of the court and spread from Afghanistan to Vietnam.

Arrival of Islam

Islam rose in 7th century Arabia and reached coastal India via sailors. We find early mosques on the western coasts in Gujarat, Konkan and Kerala. By the 12th century, Central Asian warlords, newly converted to Islam, established themselves in the city of Delhi and took over the economic system — tolls, taxes, rent. They decided on the legal system as well. This was an invasion. A new way of thinking.

Sanskrit was replaced by Persian as the language of the court. Brahmins were sidelined in favour of Turks, Persians and Afghans. Temples lost favour. Mosques and royal tombs were built instead. Sufi saints rather than Brahmins obtained land grants.

The old Raj-mandala system which was relatively more decentralised was replaced by a new tributary-based centralised Persian model – the Iqta which became the Mansab system by the time of the Mughals. The Turks brought the kagaz (paper) and kalam (pen), which started being increasingly used instead of stone, copper, birch bark and palm leaves.

From Portuguese to British colonialism

Portuguese colonialism began with the conquest of Goa by the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510. Soon western coast and western seas were controlled by Portuguese ships. They turned the sea into territory and charged taxes that had never been done before. They also introduced Christian missions and the printing press and began translating local languages.

Portuguese were followed by other European powers – Dutch, French, and English. They were driven by a new way of thinking – science, that challenged traditional ways of thinking and relied on mathematics, logic and evidence. They marked the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. The old agricultural and feudal ways would change forever around the world.

This was especially accelerated by the 18th century when Delhi was sacked by Nadir Shah of Iran. Then came Ahmad Shah Abdali. These events made the British East India Company aware of the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and led to the rise of British colonialism.

Thus we see how invasions have changed Indian culture.

Post Read Question

How did foreign invasions affect Indian culture?

The Kharosthi script was derived from the Aramaic script and was used to write several ancient languages such as Sanskrit and Prakrit. Comment. 

What was the revenue administration of the Delhi Sultanate?

Discuss the major factors that paved the way for the rise of British colonialism in India. 

(Devdutt Pattanaik is a renowned mythologist who writes on art, culture and heritage.)

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