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 A HISTORY OF INDIA
Presenting the grand sweep of Indian history from antiquity to the present, A History of India is
a detailed and authoritative account of the major political, economic, social and cultural forces
that have shaped the history of the Indian subcontinent.
Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund provide a comprehensive overview of the struc-
tural pattern of Indian history, covering each historical period in equal depth. Fully revised
throughout, the sixth edition of this highly accessible book has been brought up to date with
analysis of recent events such as the 2014 election and its consequences, and includes more
discussion of subjects such as caste and gender, Islam, foreign relations, partition, and the press
and television.
This new edition contains an updated chronology of key events and a useful glossary of Indian
terms, and is highly illustrated with maps and photographs. Supplemented by a companion
website (www.routledge.com/cw/kulke), it is a valuable resource for students of Indian history.

Hermann Kulke is Professor Emeritus of Asian History at the University of Kiel. He is the
author of Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and Southeast Asia (1993) and
editor of The State in India 1000–1700 (1995). In 2010 he was awarded the the order of ‘Padma
Shri’ by the Indian government.

Dietmar Rothermund is Professor Emeritus of History at the South Asian Institute, Univer-
sity of Heidelberg. His books include Contemporary India: Political, Economic and Social Devel-
opments since 1947 (2012), India: The Rise of an Asian Giant (2008), The Routledge Companion to
Decolonization (2006), The Global Impact of the Great Depression, 1929–1939 (1996) and India in
the Great Depression (1992).
This page intentionally left blank
 A HISTORY OF INDIA
Sixth edition

HERMANN KULKE AND DIETMAR ROTHERMUND

 This edition published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1986, 1990, 1998, 2004, 2010, 2016 Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund
The right of Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund to be identified as authors
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
First edition published 1986 by
Croom Helm Australia Pty Ltd
Fifth edition published 2010
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kulke, Hermann, author. | Rothermund, Dietmar, 1933– author.
Title: A history of India / Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund.
Description: Sixth edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016020599 | ISBN 9781138961142 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138961159 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315628806 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: India—History.
Classification: LCC DS436 .K85 2016 | DDC 954—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020599
ISBN: 978-1-138-96114-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-96115-9 (pbk)
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Typeset in Garamond
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
 CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: History and the Environment xii

Chapter One Early Civilisations of the Northwest 1

Prehistory and the Indus civilisation 1
Immigration and settlement of the Indo-Aryans 11

Chapter Two The Great Ancient Empires 27

The rise of the Gangetic culture and the great empires of the east 27
Ashoka, the Beloved of the Gods 39
The end of the Maurya empire and the northern invaders 45
Subjection and alliance: Shakas and Vakatakas 60

Chapter Three The Regional Kingdoms of Early Medieval India 77

The rise and conflicts of regional kingdoms 77
Kings, princes and priests: the structure of Hindu realms 91
The emergence of regional kingdoms 93
Gods, temples and poets: the growth of regional cultures 101
India’s impact on southeast Asia: causes and consequences 111

Chapter Four Religious Communities and Military Feudalism in

the Late Middle Ages 121
The Islamic conquest of northern India and the sultanate of Delhi 121
The problems of administrative penetration 134
The states of central and southern India in the period of the sultanate of Delhi 136

Chapter Five The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire 151
The Great Mughals and their adversaries 151
Indian land power and European sea power 170
The struggle for supremacy in India 179

Chapter Six The Period of Colonial Rule 194

Company Bahadur: trader and ruler 194
The colonial economy 207
The regional impact of British rule 211
The pattern of constitutional reform 224
vi Contents

Chapter Seven The Freedom Movement and the Partition of India 231
The Indian freedom movement 231
The return to the constitutional arena 241
The partition of India 252

Chapter Eight The Republic 266

Internal affairs and political development 266
External affairs: global and regional dimensions 299

Perspectives 319
Glossary of Indian Terms 321
Chronology 325
Bibliography 333
Index 337
 ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES 6.1 Durbar Procession of Great Mughal Akbar II 200
6.2 A textile printer, Indian painting c.1800 210
1.1 Aerial view of the acropolis of Mohenjo-Daro 2 7.1 Bal Gangadhar Tilak 232
1.2 Mohenjo-Daro, the so-called ‘Priest King’ 2 7.2 Swami Vivekananda 234
1.3 Bhaja, Maharashtra, Indra on his elephant 7.3 Gopal Krishna Gokhale 235
Airavata 15 7.4 Mountbatten with Nehru and Jinnah 260
2.1 Kausambi, excavated rampart, c.600 BC 30 7.5 Jinnah and Gandhi 261
2.2 Kausambi, Ghoshitarama complex 30 8.1 Dr Rajendra Prasad 267
2.3 Bodh Gaya, Mahabodhi Temple 32 8.2 Dr Manmohan Singh 283
2.4 Sarnath, capital of an Ashoka pillar 40 8.3 Raj Kapoor in the film Shri 420 288
2.5 Kanaganahalli, Karnataka Recently discovered
sculpture of Ashoka 42
2.6 Buddha, Gandhara style at Takht-i-Bahai 45
2.7 Kushana gold coin 50
MAPS
2.8 Sanchi, first century AD, eastern gate 56 I.1 History and the environment xiii
2.9 Udayagiri (Vidisa), Varaha 62 I.2 Population density according to the Census of
2.10 Amaravati, railing depicting king India, 2001 xxiii
Shuddhodana 70 1.1 Indus civilisation 3
3.1 Nymph at Gyaraspur, Madhya Pradesh 78 1.2 Early cultures of the Gangetic Valley
3.2 Nalanda, ruins of monastery 85 (1000–500 BC) 23
3.3 Rock relief at Mahabalipuram, showing 2.1 Maurya empire under Ashoka (262–233) 44
the descent of the Ganga and the penance 2.2 India AD 0–300 54
of Arjuna 86 2.3 The Gupta empire (320–500) 59
3.4 Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram 87 3.1 Regional kingdoms in the early seventh
3.5 Sun god Surya at Bhubaneswar, Orissa 98 century 94
3.6 Chidambaram, temple city 105 3.2 Regional kingdoms of the early Middle
3.7 Borobudur, Java 115 Ages (900–1200) 95
4.1 Delhi, Qutb Minar 126 3.3 Territorial development of Orissa
4.2 Bijapur, Gol Gumbaz 137 (600–1400) 96
4.3 Konarak, Surya Temple 139 4.1 Late Middle Ages (1206–1526), Delhi sultanate
4.4 Konarak, Orissa 140 and late regional empires 127
4.5 Virupaksha Temple at Vijayanagara 145 4.2 Temple donations and ritual policy in
4.6 Vijayanagara, inner protective fortification Vijayanagara (1505–9) 144
of the royal centre 148 5.1 The Mughal empire 156
5.1 Baber hunting a rhino 153 5.2 Northwestern campaigns of the Great Mughals,
5.2 Fatehpur Sikri 160 1645–48 165
5.3 Mausoleum of Itimad-ud-Daulah 161 5.3 Mughal empire around 1700 166
5.4 Mughal drawing of wine drinking 162 6.1 The British penetration of India
5.5 Fortress Gwalior 168 (1750–1860) 205
5.6 Indian soldiers in British service (Gun Lascar 8.1 The Republic of India 300
Corps) 180 8.2 Jammu and Kashmir and the Line of
5.7 Warren Hastings 187 Control 316
 PREFACE
India’s history is the fascinating epic of a great been reprinted in India and is widely used as
civilisation. It is a history of amazing cultural a textbook.
continuity. Today, it is the history of one-sixth The authors have benefited from discus-
of mankind. Both Indian and foreign histori- sions with Indian, British and American
ans have been attracted by this great theme. colleagues, many of whom cannot read their
Several histories of India have been written German publications. They are glad to com-
in recent times, thus the present authors may municate with them by means of this book.
be asked why they have dared to produce yet However, this book is not restricted to a dia-
another account of Indian history. logue among historians, it is written for the
Research in Indian history to which both student and the general reader. To this reader
authors have contributed in their own way is the authors want to introduce themselves
progressing rapidly and an adequate synthe- here. Hermann Kulke studied Indology (San-
sis is needed at more frequent intervals. This skrit) and history at Freiburg University and
kind of up-to-date synthesis the authors hope did his PhD thesis on the Cidambaramahat-
to have provided here. It is difficult for one mya, a text which encompasses the tradition of
author to cope with the span of Indian his- the south Indian temple city Chidambaram.
tory from ancient times to the present. Con- His second major book was on the Gajapati
sequently, many surveys of this vast subject kingship of Orissa. He has actively partici-
have been done by teams of authors, but rarely pated in the first Orissa Research Project of
have these authors had the benefit of working the German Research Council and was the co-
together in the same department, compar- editor of The Cult of Jagannath and the Regional
ing notes on Indian history for many years. Tradition of Orissa (1978). He continued to
This has been the good fortune of the pres- work on Orissa and co-ordinated the second
ent authors who have worked together at the Orissa Research Project from 1999 to 2005.
South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University He also worked on Indian historiography and
for nearly two decades. medieval state formation in India and Indo-
In the late 1970s they first embarked on nesia and on the Devaraja cult of Angkor. He
this joint venture at the request of a German published a book on kings and cults in India
publisher. The German edition was published and Indonesia, edited a volume on The State in
in 1982, revised editions appeared in 1998 India, 1000–1700, and wrote another history
and 2006. The first English edition was pub- of India in German which was published in
lished by David Croom of Croom Helm, Lon- 2005. Most recently he has co-edited a volume
don, in 1986. Subsequently the rights were on the Chola naval expeditions in the eleventh
acquired by Routledge, London, and ever century. In 1988 Hermann Kulke was called
since the Routledge editorial team has been to the new chair of Asian history at Kiel Uni-
helpful in bringing out new editions of this versity. The distance between Heidelberg and
text. Inspired by the interest in their work Kiel has not reduced the contacts with his
the authors have submitted this thoroughly co-author.
revised text in September 2009. Earlier edi- Dietmar Rothermund studied history and
tions of this comprehensive survey have been philosophy at Marburg and Munich univer-
translated into several languages. The first sities and at the University of Pennsylvania,
one was the Italian edition in 1991. This was Philadelphia, where he did his PhD thesis on
followed by Turkish, Romanian, Polish and the history of eighteenth-century Pennsylva-
Hungarian editions and by a Chinese one pub- nia. He then went to India and worked on a
lished in Beijing in 2008. The book has also history of the freedom movement which was
 Preface ix

published in German in 1965. He subsequently advice on the new section on Indian literature
wrote a book on India and the Soviet Union in Chapter 6.
and a major research monograph on agrarian When writing a history of India one is
relations in India under British rule. He also faced with a dilemma with regard to the term
wrote a comprehensive biography of Mahatma ‘India’. Before 1947 it refers to an area which
Gandhi in German and then published a is now usually called South Asia and includes
shorter version of it in English. In the 1970s other states such as Bangladesh and Paki-
he participated in the Dhanbad Research Pro- stan. The history of the latter states is covered
ject of the German Research Council, a project by the present book up to 1947 whereas for
which was devoted to the history, politics and the subsequent period it is restricted to the
economics of an Indian coalfield. Subsequently, Republic of India. Bangladesh and Pakistan
he mostly worked on Indian economic history are mentioned only to the extent that they
and published a research monograph on India have affected the Republic of India.
in the Great Depression, 1929–1939 (1992), fol- For the transcription of Indian names and
lowed by a general text on The Global Impact terms the authors have adopted the standard
of the Great Depression, 1929–1939 (1996). In English style and omitted diacritical marks. In
the 1990s he turned his attention to the lib- recent years the names of some major Indian
eralisation of the Indian economy and edited cities have been changed, i.e. the pre-colonial
a volume on Liberalising India: Progress and names have been restored. In the present text
Problems (1996). He also produced The Rout- the new names have been used wherever it
ledge Companion to Decolonization in 2006 and a seemed to be appropriate. In historical con-
book devoted to current affairs: India: The Rise texts the old names have been retained. Names
of an Asian Giant, published by Yale Univer- such as Bombay Presidency and Madras Presi-
sity Press in 2008. dency cannot be converted into Mumbai Pres-
In keeping with their respective fields of idency and Chennai Presidency. The glossary
specialisation the authors have divided the lists both new names and old names found in
work on the present text. Hermann Kulke has the text.
written Chapters 1 to 4. He benefited a great The general emphasis in this book is on
deal from discussions with Martin Brandtner, the structural pattern of Indian history rather
Kiel (now Heidelberg), while revising the first than on the chronology of events. A chrono-
chapter. Dietmar Rothermund has written the logical table has been appended to the text.
Introduction and Chapters 5 to 8. In addition Several maps have been inserted into the text
to his contribution to the present text, he also to help the reader to locate the names of places
published An Economic History of India. Its sec- and the shifts of territorial control. More illus-
ond edition was published by Routledge in trations have been added to the text as visual
1993 as a companion volume to A History of representation often transcends the power of
India. But readers then missed the economic words. Quotations from literary sources and
dimension in the subsequent editions of the from important speeches and statements
present text. This was remedied in the fourth inserted in boxes convey the views of those
edition. In the meantime the ‘cultural turn’ who have made history, which sometimes dif-
has had its impact on historiography. Taking fer from the verdict of historians who have the
note of this, the authors have also referred benefit of hindsight.
to the history of Indian art and literature in The authors are glad to notice the inter-
the current edition. These references are nec- est of their readers as reflected in the constant
essarily brief because political and economic demand for their text. They have tried to sat-
history could not be curtailed too much nor isfy their readers by providing them with this
could the text be expanded beyond a managea- sixth revised edition of A History of India. In
ble size. In this context Dietmar Rothermund the meantime they have also published other
wants to thank Hans Harder, Heidelberg, for texts which they wish to mention here briefly.
x Preface

Hermann Kulke wrote a German text Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy,
Indische Geschichte bis 1750 (München: Olden- Japan). They met at a Heidelberg conference
bourg, 2005); he then teamed up with Bhair- in 2014. The edited volume was published
abi Prasad Sahu and produced a revised and soon after: Memories of Postimperial Nations: The
enlarged English edition of this book: Preco- Aftermath of Decolonization, 1945 (New Delhi:
lonial History of India, Issues and Debates (New Cambridge University Press India, 2015). A
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016). Earlier German edition, Erinnerungskulturen postim-
he had edited, with B. Sahu, Integrative Pro- perialer Nationen, was also published (Baden-
cesses of State in Pre-Modern India (New Delhi: Baden: NOMOS, 2015).
Manohar, 2015). His edited volume The State Both authors wish to thank the Routledge
in India is due to have a second edition which team for their cooperation and constant sup-
will be published soon (New Delhi: Oxford port. They also thank those colleagues who
University Press, 2016). contributed illustrations to this text – first of
Dietmar Rothermund wrote a standard all Joachim Bautze, Berlin, who helped with
textbook: Contemporary India: Political, Eco- photographs from his rich collection. Our
nomic and Social Developments since 1947 (New thanks are also due to Niels Harm, the car-
Delhi: Pearson, 2013). He also embarked on tographer of the South Asia Institute, Heidel-
an international research project concerning berg, who contributed the maps to this book.
the memories of nations which lost or relin- Hermann Kulke and Dietmar
quished their colonial empires after 1945. For Rothermund
this he worked with seven authors represent- Kiel and Heidelberg, October 2015
ing the respective nations (Great Britain, the
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors and publishers would like to India Office Library and Records (Add. Or.
thank the following for permission to repro- 888), (Figure 6.1)
duce material: Associated Press (Figure 7.4)
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and
Philipp von Zabern, publishers, Mainz National Portray Gallery (Figure 7.5)
(Figure 1.1) AKG London (Figure 8.1)
Georg Helmes, Aachen (Figure 1.2) Yale University Press (Figure 8.2)
Museum of Modern Art, Berlin (Figure 2.4) Narendra Panjwani (Figure 8.3)
The British Museum (Figures 2.6, 2.10)
Joachim Bautze, Berlin (Figures 4.2, 5.2) While every effort has been made to trace and
Dinodia.com (Figures 4.2, 5.3, 7.5) acknowledge ownership of copyright mate-
Rietberg Museum, Zurich (Figures 4.2, 5.1, 6.2) rial used in this volume, the publishers will
Ludwig V. Habighorst (Figure 5.4) be glad to make suitable arrangements with
The Director, National Army Museum any copyright holders whom it has not been
(Figure 5.5) possible to contact.
National Portrait Gallery, London (Figures 5.6,
7.1, 7.2)
 INTRODUCTION

History and the Environment

Environment – that is a world alive and related Indian history provides excellent examples
to a living centre, the habitat of an animal, the of this evolution. Prehistoric sites with stone
hunting grounds and pastures of nomads, the tools were almost exclusively found in areas
fields of settled peasants. For human beings which were not centres of the great empires
the environment is both an objective ecolog- of the later stages of history: the area between
ical condition and a field of subjective expe- Udaipur and Jaipur, the valley of the Narmada
rience. Nature sets limits, man transgresses river, the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats,
them with his tools and his vision. Man pro- the country between the rivers Krishna and
gressively creates a specific environment and Tungabhadra (Raichur Doab), the area of the east
makes history. In this process it is not only coast where the highlands are nearest to the sea
the limits set by nature which are transgressed (to the north of present Madras), the rim of the
but also the limits of human experience and Chota Nagpur plateau and both slopes of the
cognition. From the elementary adaptation to mountain ranges of central India (see Map I.1).
the natural environment to the establishment The cultivation of grain started around
of great civilisations, the horizon of experience 7000 BC in southern Asia, according to recent
and the regional extension of human relations archaeological research. This was a time of
constantly expand. increasing rainfall in the region which has
The conception of the environment changes always depended on the monsoon. Before ven-
in the course of this evolution. Ecological con- turing into the open plains of the lower Indus
ditions, which may appear hostile to man at one the precursors of the Indus civilisation exper-
stage of this evolution, may prove to be attrac- imented with cultivating alluvial lands on a
tive and inviting at another stage. The hunter small scale in the valleys of Baluchistan. There
and food gatherer armed only with stone tools they built stone walls (gabarbands) which
preferred to live on the edge of forests near the retained the sediments of the annual inun-
plains or in open river valleys, areas which were dation. Initially the archaeologists mistook
less attractive to the settled peasant who cut these walls for dams built for irrigation, but
the trees and reclaimed fertile soil. But initially the holes in these walls showed that they were
even the peasant looked for lighter soils until designed so as to retain soil but not water.
a sturdy plough and draught animals enabled Such constructions were found near Quetta
him to cope with heavy soils. At this stage the and Las Bela and in the Bolan valley. In this
peasant could venture to open up fertile alluvial valley is also the site of Mehrgarh, which will
plains and reap rich harvests of grain. If rain- be described in detail in the next chapter.
fall or irrigation were sufficient he could grow Palaeobotanical research has indicated an
that most productive but most demanding of increase in rainfall in this whole region from
all grains: rice. Wherever irrigated rice was about 3000 BC. The new methods of cultivat-
produced, plenty of people could live and great ing alluvial soil were then adopted not only in
empires could rise, but, of course, such civili- the Indus valley, but also in the parallel Ghag-
sations and empires were very much dependent gar valley some 60 to 80 miles to the east of
on their agrarian base. A change of climate or a the Indus. This valley was perhaps even more
devastation of this base by invaders cut off their attractive to the early cultivators than the
roots and they withered away. Indus valley with its enormous inundations
I.1 History and the environment
xiv Introduction

and a flow of water twice that of the Nile. think that the mighty Indus could never have
The builders of the great cities Mohenjo-Daro been blocked for any length of time. However,
and Harappa were masters of water manage- even one sudden blockage or several seasonal
ment as the systems of urban water supply ones would have done enough damage. The
and sewage show. So far no village sites have drying up of the Ghaggar and the blocking
been found in the Indus valley. Perhaps due to of the lower Indus could thus have ruined the
the inundations agricultural operations were major centres of the Indus civilisation.
only seasonal and no permanent villages were There was one region which remained
established. The cities may have served as initially unaffected by these upheavals: the
organisational centres for such seasonal oper- Kathiawar peninsula of Gujarat. This region
ations. They were also very important centres had been colonised by the people of the Indus
of trade. Harappa which was situated near the civilisation and had emerged as a major link
borderline between agriculture and the pas- with the outside world. Only a few sites have
toral zone served as a gateway city on which been excavated there so far. Dholavira is a
the trade routes coming from the north con- site to watch. It lies far inside the Rann of
verged. Metals and precious stones came from Kutch, but it was obviously a seaport, like
the mountains and entered international mar- Lothal on the other side of the peninsula.
itime trade via the big Indus cities. Clearly, Dholavira is an important site. Mari-
Life in the Ghaggar valley may have been time trade via Oman brought African millets
of a different kind. There was a much greater to this region where inland settlements like
density of settlements there. It was probably Rojdi lived on cultivating them rather than
the heartland of this civilisation. The site wheat and barley which were the mainstay of
of Ganweriwala, near Derawar Fort, which the Indus civilisation elsewhere. The millets
has been identified but not yet excavated, were of great importance for the spread of set-
may contain the remains of a city as big as tled agriculture into the highlands further to
Harappa. It is surrounded by a large cluster the east.
of smaller sites. Perhaps here one could find The total area covered by the Indus civili-
the rural settlements which are conspicuous sation was very large. So-called Late Harappan
by their absence in the Indus valley. Archae- remains have been found even at Daimabad
ological evidence points to a drying up of the in Maharashtra. Shortugai in Badakshan,
Ghaggar around 1700 BC which may be due to Afghanistan, is so far the most northern set-
a sudden tectonic change. The river Yamuna, tlement of the Indus civilisation located by
which now parallels the Ganga, is supposed archaeologists. The distance between Shor-
to have flowed through the Ghaggar valley tugai and Daimabad is about 1,500 miles.
until an upheaval in the foothills of the Him- Such distant outposts, as well as cities not
alayas made it change its course. The distance threatened by tectonic upheavals, decayed
between the present valley of the Yamuna when the heartland no longer provided trade
and the ancient Ghaggar valley is less than and cultural supervision. The vigour of the
40 miles in the area between Jagadhri and Indus civilisation had thus been sapped long
Ambala. The land is rather flat in this area and before the tribes of cattle-rearing nomads who
even a small tectonic tilt could have caused called themselves Aryans (the noble ones)
the shift in the flow of the river. The north- descended from the north. The ecological
ward thrust of the subcontinental shelf which scenario faced by these newcomers was very
threw up the Himalayas causes tectonic move- different from that which had given rise to
ments even today, as frequent earthquakes the Indus civilisation. As nomads they could
indicate. Other tectonic upheavals at the adjust to a changing environment. Initially
mouth of the Indus river may have produced the plains of the Panjab provided rich pastures
a large lake submerging Mohenjo-Daro. This for their cattle until a sharp decrease in rainfall
latter hypothesis is contested by scholars who drove them eastwards, to the jungles of the
 Introduction xv

Ganga–Yamuna river system, which receded called the east ‘what was before them’ (purva).
in this period of perennial drought. To their right hand (dakshina) was the south.
But dakshinapatha, the way to the south, was
obstructed by mountain ranges and a hostile
THE ROUTES OF ARYAN MIGRATION environment. Nevertheless, just as some pio-
neers crossed the Gandak and explored the
The main thrust of Aryan migration was prob- fertile eastern plains, other venturesome Ary-
ably south of the Terai region where the tribu- ans proceeded either via the Malwa plateau
taries of the river Ganga must have dwindled or further east along the northern slopes of
to the point that they could be easily crossed the Vindhya mountains to the fertile region
and where the dry forest could be burned of the Deccan Lava Trap. The rich black soil
down. The Aryan fire god, Agni, was credited of this region became the southernmost out-
with the feat of colonising this land for the post of Aryan migration. Only small groups
Aryans. They stopped at the river Gandak, of Brahmins proceeded further south in search
which enters the plains north of present Gora- of patronage, which they found in due course.
khpur and joins the Ganga near Patna. Unlike Territorial control in the modern sense of
the other tributaries further to the west, this the term was unknown to these early Aryans
river seems to have been still full of good and their kings adopted a very flexible method
water because the Aryans named it Sadanira of asserting their authority. The most powerful
(everlasting) and their sacred texts report that chief among them let a sacrificial horse roam
the land beyond was swampy. Only some dar- around for a year vowing that he would defeat
ing pioneers crossed the Gandak in due course anyone who dared to obstruct the free move-
without the support of Agni. ment of the horse. If a challenger appeared, he
With the growth of royal authority in was attacked. If nobody showed up, it was pre-
the Aryan kingdoms to the west of the river sumed that the king’s authority was not ques-
Gandak, escape to the uncontrolled east may tioned. By the end of the year the king could
have been attractive to those Aryans who pre- celebrate the horse sacrifice (ashvamedha) as a
ferred the more egalitarian tribal organisation symbol of his victories or of his unchallenged
of earlier times to the twin tutelage of kings authority. But this pastime of small kings came
and their Brahmin priests. to an end when a major empire arose in the east
After some time, Brahmins also crossed the which soon annexed the kingdoms of the west.
river Gandak and were welcome there if they
did not insist on subverting the tribal organ-
isation by consecrating kings everywhere. ANCIENT EMPIRES AND
There is much evidence in ancient texts that RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
there were two ideal types of Brahmins in
those days, the royal priest or advisor (rajpuro- The east not only produced the first Indian
hit, rajguru) and the sage (rishi) who lived in empire, it also gave rise to new religious
the forest and shared his wisdom only with movements, Buddhism and Jainism. Both
those who asked for it. The people beyond the flourished in a region which was in close con-
Gandak perhaps did not mind sages but were tact with the Gangetic civilisation of the west
suspicious of the Brahmin courtiers. This sus- but had not been subjected to the slow growth
picion was mutual, because these royal priests of its royal institutions and courtly Brahmin-
had no good words for kingless tribes, whom ism. Thus, entirely new forms of organisa-
they thoroughly despised. tion evolved, like the monastic order (sangha)
The Aryan drive to the east seemed to be of the Buddhists and the imperial control
preordained by the terms which they used of trade and land revenue which provided
for the four directions. They regarded the the resources for a greater military potential
sunrise as the main cardinal point, so they than any of the Aryan kingdoms could have
xvi Introduction

achieved. Rice was one of the most important Gangetic civilisation. The great horse sacrifice
resources of this region, because the eastern was celebrated once more by a Shatavahana
Gangetic basin was the largest region of India king, but the meaning of this ritual was now
to fulfil the necessary climatic conditions. very different from that of the old flexible test
Well-organised Buddhist monasteries were of royal authority.
initially better suited for the cultural pene- It was now a great symbolic gesture of a
tration of this vast eastern region than small mighty king whose Brahmin advisors must
groups of Brahmins would have been. Monas- have prompted him to identify himself with
teries, of course, required more sustained sup- the Vedic tradition which they had preserved
port than such small groups of Brahmins, but in the south rather than with the ideologies
this was no problem in this rice bowl of India. which great emperors from Ashoka to Kan-
The new empire of the east, with its centre in ishka had propagated in the north. This was
Magadha to the south of the river Ganga, first of crucial importance for the future course of
vanquished the tribal republics in the Trans- Indian history as well as for the export of the
Gandak region to the north of the Ganga and Hindu idea of kingship to southeast Asia.
then the Aryan kingdoms of the west, show-
ing little respect for their traditions and finally
imposing a new ideology of its own. But this THE PERIODS OF INDIAN HISTORY
empire in turn succumbed to internal conflicts
and the onslaught of new invaders who came The resurgence of old traditions throughout
from the north, where the Aryans had come Indian history prevents the ready transfer of
from more than a millennium earlier. The new the Western periodisation of history to India.
invaders arrived when ecological conditions Ancient, medieval and modern history cannot
were improving once more in northern India. be easily identified in India. For this reason
They also had the benefit of finding readily many historians adopted another division
available imperial patterns which they could for Indian history: Hindu, Islamic and Brit-
adopt very quickly. Aryan royal institutions ish periods. Hindu historians tended to glo-
had taken centuries to mature in the relatively rify the golden age of the Hindu period and
isolated Gangetic basin. In a world of closer considered Islamic and British rule as two
connections and wider horizons where Hel- successive periods of foreign rule. Islamic his-
lenistic, Iranian and Indian models of govern- torians accepted this clear-cut division though
ance and ritual sovereignty were known to all, they may have had their own ideas about the
a new invader could leap from the darkness of Hindu period. British historians were equally
an unrecorded nomadic past to the limelight comfortable with this division as it implied
of imperial history within a relatively short that British rule made such a mark on Indian
period. Shakas and Kushanas swept in this history that one could very well forget about
way across northern India. Their short-lived everything else.
imperial traditions embodied a syncretism This periodisation, though, has given rise to
of several available patterns of legitimation. many misconceptions. First of all, the Hindu
They also adopted Hinduism, not the Vedic period was not at all homogeneous in its tra-
tradition but rather the more popular cults of ditions and cultural patterns, nor did these
Vishnu and Shiva. Hindu traditions disappear when Islamic rule
The waves of imperial grandeur which spread in India nor even when the British
swept across northern India then stimulated controlled the country. Islamic rule in India
the south. But when the first great indige- was of a very heterogeneous character and the
nous dynasty of the south, the Shatavahanas, cooperation of Hindus and Muslims in many
emerged they did not follow the syncretism of spheres of political, social and cultural life was
the northern empires but harked back to the in many respects more important than the ref-
tradition of the small Aryan kingdoms of the erence to a well-defined Islamic period would
 Introduction xvii

indicate. British rule was ephemeral both in which set the pattern for India’s medieval
terms of its time span and of the intensity history. These were concentric states with a
of its impact. Due to its fairly recent end it royal centre in the core region and a periph-
still looms large in our minds, but if we take ery in which the influence of competitors also
a long view of history we must regard it as made itself felt. Intense competition among
an episode, though a very important one. such concentric states stimulated the politi-
The younger generation of historians in India cal penetration which was so ephemeral in the
has criticised the misleading periodisation of far-flung empires of the ancient period. A uni-
Hindu, Islamic and British, but due to the form court culture spread to all parts of India.
lack of a better alternative it still lingers on. The Islamic rulers who invaded India did con-
We shall adopt in this book a different tribute new features to this pattern, but to a
periodisation and refer to ancient, medieval large extent the rulers were assimilated. Their
and modern Indian history in terms of the court culture had a different religious base but
predominant political structure and not in it functioned in a way similar to that of the
terms of the religious or ethnic affiliation of Hindu rulers whom they displaced.
the respective rulers. The modern period of Indian history
At the centre of ancient Indian history begins with the Mughal empire, which was
was the chakravartin, the ruler who tried to comparable in size with some of the ancient
conquer the entire world. His limits were, Indian empires but was totally different from
of course, his knowledge of the world and them in its internal structure. It was a highly
his military potential. The ideal chakravar- centralised state based on the extensive con-
tin turned his attention to the elimination or trol of land revenue and of a military machine
silencing of external challenges rather than to which could rival that of contemporary Euro-
the intensive internal control of the empire. A pean states. In fact, the size of the machine
rich core region and control of the trade routes was the reason for the final collapse of this
which provided sufficient support for the mil- empire which could not meet its financial
itary potential of the chakravartin were enough needs. This was then achieved by the British
for the maintenance of universal dominance. who conquered the remnants of this empire
Many such empires rose and fell in ancient and continued its administrative tradition and
India, the last being the Gupta empire, which made it much more effective.
embodied all the splendour and the prob-
lems of this type of ancient Indian political
organisation. One important impact of these CHARIOTS, ELEPHANTS AND THE METHODS
empires was the dissemination of information OF WARFARE
about the art of governance, the style of royal
or imperial courts, the methods of warfare The course of Indian history, which has been
and the maintenance of an agrarian base. Even briefly sketched here, was deeply affected by
though the internal administrative penetra- changes in the methods of warfare. The Aryan
tion of the various provinces of the ancient warriors relied on their swift chariots, which
empires was negligible, the spread of infor- made them militarily superior to the indig-
mation certainly was not. At the time of the enous people but could, of course, also be
Maurya empire many parts of India were still used for incessant warfare among themselves.
so inaccessible that there were natural limits Chariots did not lend themselves to monop-
to this spread of information, but by the time olisation by a centralised power. But the war
of the great Indian campaigns of the Gupta elephants on which imperial Magadha based
emperors almost all regions of India were its military strength were ideal supporters of
receptive to the imperial message. Thus when a power monopoly. The eastern environment
the empire broke up and India’s ancient period of Magadha provided an ample supply of wild
drew to an end, numerous regional states arose elephants, but maintenance was of greater
xviii Introduction

importance than supply. Only a mighty ruler which in turn can be subdivided into four
could afford to maintain adequate contin- smaller subregions, each of which theoreti-
gents of war elephants. The entrance of the cally would be able to support a regional ruler.
elephant into Indian military history around But generally only one ruler in each major
500 BC thus made a profound difference to region would be strong enough to establish a
the political structure and the strategy of hegemony over the respective subregions, but
warfare. Chandragupta Maurya’s gift of 500 his resources would not permit him to annex
elephants to Seleukos Nikator was one of the all of them permanently. A ruler who had
most important military aid transactions of achieved such a hegemony in his major region
the ancient world. might then also have tried to intervene in one
Indian military strategy is faithfully reflec- or two other major regions. This interaction
ted in the game of chess, which is supposed was conditioned by the location of powerful
to have been invented by an Indian Brahmin rulers in the other major regions. It is of great
for the entertainment of his king. In this game importance in this respect that there was also
as well as on the battlefield, the king himself a fourth region, a vast intermediate area in
conducts the operations from the back of an the centre of India which provided a great
elephant. He has to take care not to expose challenge to the potential of intervention of
himself too much, because if he is killed his aggressive rulers.
army is vanquished even if it is still in good
condition. Therefore the movements of the
king are restricted. The dynamics of the bat- THE REGIONAL PATTERN OF INDIAN
tle are determined by the general, the cavalry HISTORY
and the runners. The flanks of the army are pro-
tected by elephants which may also be moved The first major region of the Indian sub-
into front-line positions as the battle draws continent is the alluvial land of the north-
to a decisive close. The infantrymen, mostly ern rivers which extends for about 2,000
untrained, slow and armed with very elemen- miles from the mouth of the Indus to the
tary weapons are only important because of mouth of the river Ganga. This belt of land
their numbers and because of their nuisance is only about 200 miles wide. The two other
value in some critical phases of the battle. This major regions are the southern highlands
strategic pattern remained more or less the and the east coast. They are separated from
same for more than 2,000 years. the northern region by the large intermedi-
The upkeep of such an army required a ate zone which extends right across India for
regional stronghold of sufficient dimensions. about 1,000 miles from Gujarat to Orissa
The structure of the Indian environment and and is 300–400 miles wide.
the distribution of such nuclear regions pre- The northern region is subdivided into four
determined a standard extension of direct rule smaller regions, the first one being the region
over an area about 100–200 miles in diameter of the first great Indian empire in the east,
and a potential of intervention in regions at a Bengal and Bihar, the second the middle
distance of 400–500 miles. Direct rule refers Gangetic basin including the lower Ganga–
to the ability to collect revenue and the poten- Yamuna Doab, the third the Agra–Delhi
tial of intervention is defined as the ability to region and the western Doab, and the fourth
send a substantial army with war elephants to the Indus region. The intermediate zone is
a distant region with a good chance of defeat- both a mediator and a buffer between the
ing the enemy but not with the intention of northern region and the two other ones. Its
adding his region permanently to one’s own two terminal regions, Gujarat and Orissa, are
area of direct rule. both separated from the other major regions
If we keep these rules of the game in mind in specific ways: Gujarat by the desert in the
we can delineate three major regions in India north and Orissa by mountains and rivers
 Introduction xix

which are always in flood in the monsoon capitals near the confluence of rivers, which
season. The interior of the intermediate zone are considered to be sacred and must therefore
contains four enclaves which are isolated from be accessible to pilgrims from everywhere and
each other: the fertile plains of Chattisgarh, that means accessible also to enemies.
a region which was called Dakshina Koshala Another interesting region is Kongunad,
in ancient times; Vidarbha, the area around the area to the south of present Coimbatore,
present Nagpur; the Malwa plateau around being the hinterland of the three south-
Ujjain, which was called Avanti in antiquity; ern coastal regions. This region was of some
and finally the Rajput country between Jaipur importance in antiquity. The many Roman
and Udaipur. Of course, there have been some coins found there suggest it may have been
contacts among these regions of the interme- an area of transit for important trade routes.
diate zone and with the other major regions. However, it never provided a stronghold for
Furthermore Gujarat and Orissa, predestined an important dynasty, except perhaps for the
by their location on the coast, have been in Kalabhras who dominated the southeast coast
touch with regions overseas. But for mili- from the fourth to the sixth century and of
tary intervention, this intermediate zone has whom not much is known so far. The west
always been a major obstacle. coast has been omitted from our survey of
The four subregional centres of the high- major regions for good reasons: the small strip
land region are the Deccan Lava Trap around of land between the Ghats and the Arabian
Aurangabad and Paithan, the central region Sea never provided a foothold for any major
around Haiderabad, including the old capitals power; it only supported some local rulers.
of Bidar, Manyakheta and Kalyani, the region The capitals of the kingdoms which were
between Bijapur and Vijayanagara which established in these various regions have,
includes old capitals such as the Badami of with few exceptions, not survived the decline
the Chalukyas, and finally the region around of those kingdoms. Today we may only find
Mysore, the stronghold of the Hoysalas and some ruins and occasionally a village which
later on of Tipu Sultan. The four subregions still bears the ancient great name. There are
within the east coast region are the Krishna– several reasons for this disappearance of the
Godaveri delta; Tondaimandalam around old capitals. First of all they depended on
present Madras, the centre of the old Pallava the agricultural surplus of the surrounding
empire; Cholamandalam in the Kaveri delta countryside and, therefore, on the ruler who
region, the home ground of the Chola dynasty; managed to appropriate this surplus. Once the
and finally Pandyamandala around Madurai, ruler was gone, the capital also disappeared
the centre of the Pandyas. and if a new dynasty rose in the same region
The three last mentioned subregions are it usually built a new capital. In the central
close to each other, but they are divided from area of each of these regions there were many
the first east coast subregion, the Krishna– places suitable for the location of a capital. In
Godaveri delta, by a stretch of land called fact, these central areas are demarcated by the
Rayalaseema. Here the highland comes close frequency of capitals constructed there (see
to the coast and cuts into the fertile coastal Map I.1).
plains. Thus, though Rayalaseema and the Only in a very few instances did a unique
region adjacent to it, the Raichur Doab strategic location compel many dynasties
located between Krishna and Tungabhadra, throughout the ages to build their capitals
never became an important centre of power, it more or less on the same spot. The prime
was fought over frequently. It has a rich cul- example of this is Delhi, which controls
tural heritage and is full of ancient temples, the entrance to the fertile Ganga–Yamuna
but no powerful ruler ever put up his head- Doab. The Aravalli mountain range closely
quarters there. This may also be due to the approaches the Yamuna here where this river
fact that Hindu kings did not like to build flows in a wide, flat bed. Whoever was in
xx Introduction

control of this gateway held sway in this part highlands whenever the foremost ruler of that
of northern India, or, to put it differently, he region had his headquarters around present
who wanted to rule this region had to capture Haiderabad, which is only about 150 miles
this gateway. Therefore the area around Delhi west of this fertile delta. The only exception
is, so to speak, littered with the remnants of to this rule seems to be the establishment of
about a dozen ancient capitals which have Vengi by the Chalukyas whose home base was
been built here for more than two millennia. at Vatapi at that time.
Patna, the old Pataliputra, is a strategic Within the three major regions the strug-
place of similar importance. It is located on gle for hegemony continued. The likelihood
a high bank of the river Ganga and when the of conflict between rulers of two major regions
river is in spate in the monsoon season, the was dependent on these ‘domestic’ struggles.
city looks like an island in the midst of the For instance, if the ruler of a southern centre
flooded plains. Pataliputra emerged as a bas- of the highlands was in power and a ruler of
tion of Magadha in its fight against the tribal the Delhi–Agra region had attained hegem-
republics to the north of the Ganga. It also ony in the north, there was hardly a chance of
controlled the access to the eastern route to their clashing. But if the foremost ruler of the
the south via the Sone valley and along the southern highlands was located in the north of
slopes of the Vindhya mountains. When the this region and the north was in the hands of a
rulers of Magadha moved their capital from ruler of the middle Gangetic basin, a clash was
southern Bihar into the centre of the valley much more likely (for example, the Rashtra-
of the Ganga they naturally selected Patali- kuta encounter with the Gurjara Pratiharas).
putra as their new capital and many of their The potential for long-distance interven-
successors did the same. The highlands and tion and conquest grew only when the Islamic
the east coast have no perennial capital sites invaders of the north introduced the new
like that, the regional pattern remained fixed, method of swift cavalry warfare. However, it
but the location of the capital was a matter of did not, at first, change the pattern of regional
discretion. dominance. All rulers quickly adopted the
The great distances which separated the new strategy and thus there was once more a
regional centres of the southern highlands uniform standard of warfare throughout the
and the east coast from those of the northern subcontinent. However, the new strategy had
region meant that in many periods of Indian important internal consequences for the polit-
history great rulers of the south and of the ical structure of the regional realms. Horse
north coexisted without ever clashing. Inter- breeding was always a problem in India and
vention across the wide intermediate zone was good warhorses had to be imported from Ara-
always very hazardous, and even more prob- bia and Persia at a high price. This made the
lematic was the attempt at governing a huge maintenance of the military machine more
empire from two capitals, one at Delhi and expensive. At the same time the man on horse-
the other in the northernmost regional centre back was an awe-inspiring collector of land
of the highlands (Daulatabad/Aurangabad). revenue and thus the appropriation of surplus
But even the regional centres of the highlands could be intensified. A new military feudal-
and of the east coast were so distant from each ism, hand-in-hand with a military urban-
other that the potential of intervention was ism, arose in this way. Cavalry garrisons were
fairly restricted. For instance, Badami (Vat- established in the countryside and their com-
api), the capital of the third subregion of the manding officers became local administrators
highlands, is about 400 miles from the cen- making their headquarters focal points for
tres of the first and the second regions of the their respective neighbourhoods. The extrac-
east coast. The Krishna–Godaveri delta was tion of surplus from the countryside was del-
subjected to frequent intervention from the egated to a large extent. These cavalry officers
 Introduction xxi

were rarely local notables. They were usually India did not conceive of the peripheral for-
strangers who owed their appointment to the eigners as a serious threat as did Japan, which
regional ruler, and if they thought of rebellion adopted a policy of deliberate isolation. In
at all they thought in terms of replacing the this way the British were able to extend
ruler himself rather than gaining autonomy their control over India from their peripheral
over the area which they happened to control. bridgeheads on the coast until they captured
the vast land revenue base of the fertile east-
ern region which had provided the founda-
THE MARITIME PERIPHERY AND THE tion for the first Indian empire more than
INTRUSION OF EUROPEAN POWERS 2,000 years previously.
In fact, the British conquest of India closely
The preoccupation with the cavalry warfare paralleled the pattern of expansion of the Mau-
blinded the Indian rulers to the maritime rya empire. They subjected the Gangetic basin
challenge of European powers. They would up to the Ganga–Yamuna Doab as well as the
only take an enemy seriously if he confronted east coast and penetrated into the interior of
them with large contingents of cavalry. They the south where they defeated Tipu Sultan
did not pay any attention to the Indian of Mysore. Just like the Mauryas, the Brit-
Ocean as the most important element of the ish left large parts of the interior untouched.
total Indian environment. Nobody had ever Indirect rule was less expensive in areas which
invaded India from the sea and, therefore, did not promise a high yield of land revenue.
the rulers were sure that they could neglect But, unlike the ancient Indian empires, the
the Europeans who, at the most, hired some British Indian empire emphasised efficient
Indian foot soldiers to protect their trading administrative penetration. The Mughal her-
outposts. They knew the monsoon would itage was already strong in this respect, but
not permit a sustained maritime invasion of the British were able to improve greatly upon
India, as it only carried ships to India dur- it. The Mughal administration was, after all,
ing a few months of the year. Thus a mar- a military one: the officers who made the deci-
itime invader would find his supply lines sions were warriors and not bookkeepers. The
cut within a very short time. Actually the British replaced the warriors with bookkeep-
European powers never attempted such an ers who were under the strict discipline of a
invasion but built up their military con- modern bureaucracy. In fact, British bureau-
tingents in India, drilling infantry troops, cracy in India was far ahead of British admin-
which were less expensive to maintain but istration at home, which was both supported
proved to be fatal to the Indian cavalry. At and encumbered by British tradition. This
the same time, control of the sea and of the new system of bureaucratic administration
maritime periphery provided the European was both much cheaper and more efficient
powers with a much greater potential for than the Mughal system. The Mughal warrior
intervention. administrator spent a large part of the surplus
Indian rulers had not always neglected the which he appropriated in the region from
Indian Ocean. The Chola kings had equipped which it had come, but the British collected
great naval expeditions and Indian seafarers more and spent less and could transfer the
had a remarkable tradition of long-distance surplus abroad. This implied a decline of the
voyages. The Hindu prejudice against cross- internal administrative centres which shrank
ing the black water (kala pani) of the ocean to a size in keeping with their functions in
had grown only in the late medieval period the new system. Only the major bridgeheads
and the Mughal emphasis on the internal on the maritime periphery, Bombay, Calcutta
control of a vast empire had added to India’s and Madras, grew out of all proportion. They
isolationist tendency. On the other hand, also became the terminal points of the railway
xxii Introduction

network which linked the interior of India to characterised by a slow but steady population
the world market. Thus the old regional pat- growth which was then checked by the great
tern of Indian history, which has been outlined famines at the end of the century. The 1901
above, was subverted by the British rulers. The Census reflected this stage of development.
pattern was turned inside out. The periphery It thus provides a fairly accurate picture of
provided the new regional centres of the three the regional pattern of population density
great Presidencies which encompassed the which must have prevailed for quite some
three major regions outlined above. Only some time. The regions of highest population den-
of the capitals of Indian princes who lived on sity (more than 150 people per square kilo-
under British paramountcy remained as rather metre) were the following: the first three
modest centres in the interior of the coun- subregions of the northern plains, the first
try until the British rulers decided to revive three subregions of the east coast, the south-
Delhi as the capital of British India. But this ern tip of the west coast and a few districts
transfer of the capital was more of a symbolic in the fertile plains of Gujarat. This pattern
gesture than an effective change in the struc- has probably existed also in earlier centuries.
ture of British rule. Even independent India Of course, population density must have been
could not easily change the new regional order less in earlier times, but the relative position
of India, which was dominated by the great of the regions listed here must have been the
peripheral centres. The rise of new industrial same. This relative position is still more or
centres in the Indian coal and iron ore belt less the same at present. But since popula-
around Chota Nagpur has not made much tion increased much more rapidly after 1921,
difference in this respect. These are industrial population density is a liability rather than
enclaves in a very backward region which has an asset to the respective regions nowadays.
never been a nuclear region but rather a retreat The rate of increase has declined in some of
for the tribal population. these regions and risen in others. The south-
ern rim of the Gangetic basin, the western
and southern parts of the highlands, parts of
THE REGIONAL PATTERN OF POPULATION Gujarat and the northern part of the east coast
DENSITY have been areas of above average population
increase in recent decades. Particularly the
One indicator of the relative changes of the changing structure of population density in
importance of different regions in India is the the highlands, which had always been below
density of population (see Map I.2). Unfortu- average in earlier years, seems to be of great
nately we know very little about the distribu- significance. This may also imply a shift in
tion of population in earlier periods of Indian the political importance of various regions.
history. We can only guess that the great rice Hitherto Uttar Pradesh, which encompasses
areas of the eastern Gangetic basin and of the the second and most of the third subregion
east coast have always been regions with a of the northern plains, has played a domi-
much higher population density than the rest nant role in India’s political history, earlier
of India. These conditions remained more or because of its strategic location and nowadays
less the same under British rule, because canal because of its enormous population which
irrigation was introduced only in very few means a corresponding weight in political
areas which could then be expected to sup- representation. But this position may not
port greater numbers of people than previ- remain unchallenged. On the other hand
ously. Fairly reliable census data are available those regions of India which still continue to
only from 1881 onwards and since then the be well below the national average in pop-
Census of India has continued in its decen- ulation density are also regions which never
nial rhythm. The late nineteenth century was played a prominent role in Indian history.
 Introduction xxiii

the Telugu region follows the southern rim of

the Rayalaseema region, the northern border
of the Telugu language region and thus the
border of the Dravidian languages in general
more or less follows the third zone. In the west-
ern highlands the region of the southernmost
Indo-Aryan language, Marathi, is situated
between the second and the fourth areas. The
area between the first and the second zones is
a region of a variety of old tribal languages,
but this region has been penetrated by the
lingua franca of the north, Hindi. But Hindi
did not manage to penetrate the area beyond
the second zone. Not all borders of language
regions in India are marked by such thresh-
olds, but the pattern illustrated here shows a
remarkable coincidence of environmental con-
ditions with the spread of languages. History
and the environment are interdependent and
Indian history owes much to an environment
which has a highly differentiated structure
I.2 Population density according to the
and which is in some ways extremely gener-
Census of India, 2001 ous but can also prove to be very hostile and
challenging to those who have to cope with it.

These are mainly four zones which cut across BIBLIOGRAPHY

the subcontinent. The first reaches from the
great desert in the west to the Chota Nagpur B.N. Mukherjee, The Concept of India (Cal-
plateau in the east. The second consists of the cutta, 1998)
Vindhya mountain range. The third extends P. Nag and S. Sengupta, A Geography of India
from the centre of the highlands to the moun- (New Delhi, 1992)
tain ranges along the northern east coast, and S. Raju et al., Atlas of Women and Men in India
the fourth is the Rayalaseema region and the (New Delhi, 1999)
adjacent area to the west of it. Thus census J. Schwartzberg (ed.), Historical Atlas of South
data help us to support the main conclusions Asia (Chicago, 1978)
of the regional analysis presented above. D.E. Sopher (ed.), Exploration of India. Geo-
The four areas which we have delineated graphical Perspectives on Society and Culture
are also important barriers of communica- (Ithaca, 1980)
tion which limited the spread of regional lan- B. Subbarao, The Personality of India (Baroda,
guages. The border between the Tamil and 1958)
This page intentionally left blank
 CHAPTER ONE

Early Civilisations of the Northwest

PREHISTORY AND THE interpreted by the excavators as the founda-

INDUS CIVILISATION tions of granaries. In Mohenjo-Daro it was
situated in the acropolis; in Harappa it was
When the great cities of Harappa and Mohen- immediately adjacent to it. In Mohenjo-Daro
jo-Daro were discovered in the 1920s the this architectural complex, constructed next
history of the Indian subcontinent attained a to the Great Bath, is still particularly impres-
new dimension. The discovery of these cen- sive. Its foundation, running east to west, was
tres of the early Indus civilisation was a major 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. On this foun-
achievement of archaeology. Before these dation were twenty-seven compartments in
centres were known, the Indo-Aryans were three rows. The 15-foot walls of these are still
regarded as the creators of the first early cul- extant. These compartments were very well
ture of the subcontinent. They were supposed ventilated and, in cases where they were used
to have come down to the Indian plains in the as granaries, they could have been filled from
second millennium BC. But the great cities outside the acropolis. At Harappa there were
of the Indus civilisation proved to be much some small houses, assumed to be those of
older, reaching back into the third and fourth workers or slaves, and a large open space
millennia. After ancient Egypt and Mesopo- between the acropolis and these buildings.
tamia, this Indus civilisation emerged as the The big lower cities were divided into rec-
third major early civilisation of mankind, fol- tangular areas. In Mohenjo-Daro there were
lowed about a millennium later by China. nine such areas, each about 1,200 by 800 feet.
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro show a surpris- Broad main streets, about 30 feet wide, sepa-
ing similarity although they were separated by rated these parts of the city from each other.
about 350 miles. In each city the archaeolo- All the houses were connected directly to the
gists found an acropolis and a lower city, each excellent sewage system which ran through
fortified separately. The acropolis, situated to all the numerous small alleys. Many houses
the west of each city and raised on an artificial had a spacious interior courtyard and private
mound made of bricks, contained large assem- wells. All houses were built with standard-
bly halls and edifices which were obviously con- ised bricks. The width of each brick was twice
structed for religious cults. In Mohenjo-Daro as much as its height and its length twice as
there was a ‘Great Bath’ (39 by 23 feet, with large as its width.
a depth of 8 feet) at the centre of the acropolis But it was not only this excellent city
which may have been used for ritual purposes. planning which impressed the archaeologists,
This bath was connected to an elaborate water they also found some interesting sculptures
supply system and sewers. To the east of this and thousands of well-carved seals made of
bath there was a big building (about 230 by steatite. These seals show many figures and
78 feet) which is thought to have been a palace symbols of the religious life of the people of
either of a king or of a high priest. this early culture. There are tree deities among
A special feature of each of these cities them and there is the famous so-called ‘Pro-
was the large platforms which have been to-Shiva’ who is seated in the typical pose of a
2 Early Civilisations of the Northwest

1.1 Aerial view of the acropolis of Mohenjo-Daro; the ‘Great Bath’ at its centre.
(Fig. 123 of the Catalogue Vergessene Städte am Indus, ed. by Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1987 (copyright Univ.-Prof.
Dr. Michael Jansen, Director, German Research Centre, Mohenjo-Daro (RWTH), Aachen))

meditating man. He has three heads, an erect

phallus and is surrounded by animals which
were also worshipped by the Hindus of a later
age. These seals also show evidence of a script
which has not yet been deciphered.
Both cities shared a uniform system of
weights and measures based on binary num-
bers and the decimal system. Articles made
of copper and ornaments with precious stones
show that there was a flourishing interna-
tional trade. More evidence for this interna-
tional trade emerged when seals of the Indus
culture were found in Mesopotamia and other
seals which could be traced to Mesopotamia
were discovered in the cities on the Indus.
Before indigenous sites of earlier stages of
the Indus civilisation were excavated it was
believed that Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
were merely outposts of the Mesopotamian
civilisation, either constructed by migrants
or at least designed according to their spec- 1.2 Mohenjo-Daro, the so-called, ‘Priest King’,
ifications. These speculations were strength- late third millenium BC
ened by the mention in Mesopotamian (Courtesy of Georg Helmes, Aachen)
sources of countries such as Dilmun, Magan
 Early Civilisations of the Northwest 3

and Meluhha. Dilmun has been identified as knowledge of the historical evolution and the
Bahrain and Magan seems to be identical with spatial extension of the Indus civilisation (see
present Oman. Meluhha may have referred to Map 1.1). Earlier assessments of the rise and
the Indus valley from where Mesopotamia fall of this civilisation had to be revised. The
obtained wood, copper, gold, silver, carnelian new excavations showed that this civilisation,
and cotton. at its height early in the late third millennium
In analogy to the Mesopotamian prece- BC, had encompassed an area larger than West-
dent, the Indus culture was thought to be ern Europe.
based on a theocratic state whose twin cap- In the Indus valley, other important cit-
itals Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro obviously ies of this civilisation, such as Kot Diji to the
showed the traces of a highly centralised east of Mohenjo-Daro and Amri in the Dadu
organisation. Scholars were also fairly sure District on the lower Indus, were discovered
of the reasons for the sudden decline of in the years after 1958. In Kathiawar and on
these cities since scattered skeletons which the coast of Gujarat similar centres were traced.
showed traces of violent death were found Thus in 1954 Lothal was excavated south of
in the uppermost strata of Mohenjo-Daro. It Ahmadabad. It is claimed that Lothal was a
appeared that men, women and children had major port of this period. Another 100 miles
been exterminated by conquerors in a ‘last further south Malwan was also identified in
massacre’. The conquerors were assumed to 1967 as a site of the Indus civilisation. It is
be the Aryans who invaded India around the located close to Surat and so far marks, together
middle of the second millennium BC. Their with Daimabad in the Ahmadnagar District
warrior god, Indra, was, after all, praised as a of Maharashtra, the southernmost extension of
breaker of forts in many Vedic hymns. this culture. The spread of the Indus civilisa-
However, after the Second World War, tion to the east was documented by the 1961
intensive archaeological research in Afghani- excavations at Kalibangan in Rajasthan about
stan, Pakistan and India greatly enhanced our 200 miles west of Delhi. However, Alamgirpur,

1.1 Indus civilisation

4 Early Civilisations of the Northwest

in Meerut District in the centre of the Ganga– excavated in more recent years: Mehrgarh,
Yamuna Doab, is considered to mark the far- Amri, Kalibangan, Lothal. These four sites
thest extension to the east of this culture. In the reflect the sequence of the four important
north, Rupar in the foothills of the Himalayas is phases in the protohistory of the northwest-
the farthest outpost which is known in India. In ern region of the Indian subcontinent. The
the west, traces of this civilisation were found in sequence begins with the transition of nomadic
Baluchistan close to the border of present Iran at herdsmen to settled agriculturists in eastern
Sutkagen Dor. This was probably a trading cen- Baluchistan, continues with the growth of
tre on the route connecting the Indus valley with large villages in the Indus valley and the rise
Mesopotamia. Afghanistan also has its share of of towns, leads to the emergence of the great
Indus civilisation sites. This country was known cities and, finally, ends with their decline. The
for its lapis lazuli which was coveted everywhere first stage is exemplified by Mehrgarh in Bal-
even in those early times. At Mundigak near uchistan, the second by Amri in the southern
Kandahar a palace was excavated which has an Indus valley and the third and fourth by Kali-
impressive façade decorated with pillars. This bangan in Rajasthan and by Lothal in Gujarat.
site, probably one of the earliest settlements in
the entire region, is thought to be an outpost of
the Indus civilisation. Another one was found Mehrgarh
more recently further to the north at Shortugai
on the Amu Darya. Mehrgarh is situated about 150 miles to the
This amazing extension of our knowledge northwest of Mohenjo-Daro at the foot of the
about the spatial spread of the Indus civilisa- Bolan Pass, which links the Indus valley via
tion was accompanied by an equally success- Quetta and Kandahar with the Iranian pla-
ful exploration of its history. Earlier strata of teau. The site, excavated by French archae-
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa as well as of Kali- ologists since 1974, is about 1,000 yards in
bangan, Amri and Kot Diji were excavated diameter and contains seven excavation sites
in a second round of archaeological research. with different strata of early settlements. The
In this way a continuous sequence of strata, oldest mound shows in its upper strata a large
showing the gradual development to the high Neolithic village which, according to radio-
standard of the full-fledged Indus civilisation, carbon dating, belongs to the sixth millen-
was established. These strata have been named nium BC. The rectangular houses were made
Pre-Harappan, Early Harappan, Mature Hara- of adobe bricks, but ceramics were obviously
ppan and Late Harappan. The most important still unknown to the inhabitants. The most
result of this research is the clear proof of the important finds were traces of grain and innu-
long-term indigenous evolution of this civili- merable flint blades which appear to have
sation which obviously began on the periph- been used as sickles for cutting the grain.
ery of the Indus valley in the hills of eastern These clearly establish that some kind of cul-
Baluchistan and then extended into the plains. tivation prevailed in Baluchistan even at that
There were certainly connections with Meso- early age. Several types of grain were identi-
potamia, but the earlier hypothesis that the fied: two kinds of barley, and wheat, particu-
Indus civilisation was merely an extension of larly emmer. Surprisingly, the same types of
Mesopotamian civilisation had to be rejected. grain were found in even lower strata going
back to the seventh millennium.
The early transition from hunting and
The anatomy of four sites nomadic life to settled agriculture and ani-
mal husbandry is documented also by large
The various stages of the indigenous evolution numbers of animal bones which were found in
of the Indus civilisation can be documented various Neolithic strata of the site. The oldest
by an analysis of four sites which have been strata of the seventh millennium contained
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 FIRST ORDER: CHONDROPTERYGII.
Skeleton cartilaginous. Body with medial and paired fins, the
hinder pair abdominal. Vertebral column generally heterocercal, the
upper lobe of the caudal fin produced. Gills attached to the skin by
the outer margin, with several intervening gill-openings: rarely one
external gill-opening only. No gill-cover. No air-bladder. Two, three,
or more series of valves in the conus arteriosus. Ova large and few
in number,[33] impregnated and, in some species, developed within a
uterine cavity. Embryo with deciduous external gills.[34] Males with
intromittent organs attached to the ventral fins.[35]
This order, for which, also, the name Elasmobranchii has been
proposed (by Bonaparte), comprises the Sharks and Rays and
Chimæras, and is divided into two suborders: Plagiostomata and
Holocephala.

FIRST SUB-ORDER: PLAGIOSTOMATA.

From five to seven gill-openings. Skull with a suspensorium and
the palatal apparatus detached. Teeth numerous.
The Plagiostomes differ greatly among each other with regard to
the general form of their body: in the Sharks or Selachoidei the body
is elongate, more or less cylindrical, gradually passing into the tail;
their gill-openings are lateral. In the Rays, or Batoidei, the gill-
openings are always placed on the abdominal aspect of the fish; the
body is depressed, and the trunk, which is surrounded by the
immensely developed pectoral fins, forms a broad flat disk, of which
the tail appears as a thin and slender appendage. Spiracles are
always present; the number of gill-openings is constantly five; no
anal fin; dorsal fins, if present, situated on the tail. However, some of
the Rays approach the Sharks in having the caudal portion less
abruptly contracted behind the trunk.
Fossil Plagiostomes are very numerous in all formations. Some
of the earliest determinable fish remains are believed to be, or are,
derived from Plagiostomes. Those which can be referred to any of
the following families will be mentioned subsequently: but there are
others, especially fin-spines, which leave us in doubt to which group
of Plagiostomes their owners had any affinity, thus Onchus from the
upper Silurian, continuing to carboniferous formations;
Dimeracanthus, Homocanthus, from the Devonian; Oracanthus,
Gyracanthus, Tristychius, Astroptychius, Ptychacanthus,
Sphenacanthus, etc., from carboniferous formations; Leptacanthus,
from the coal to the Oolite; Cladacanthus, Cricacanthus, Gyropristis,
and Lepracanthus, from the coal measures; Nemacanthus,
Liacanthus, from the Trias; Astracanthus, Myriacanthus,
Pristacanthus, from the Jurassic group.

A. Selachoidei: Sharks.
The elongate cylindrical body, generally terminating in a more or
less pointed snout, and passing into a powerful and flexible tail,
blade-like at its extremity, gives to the Sharks a most extraordinary
power of swimming, with regard to endurance as well as rapidity of
motion. Many, especially the larger kinds, inhabit the open ocean,
following ships for weeks, or pursuing shoals of fishes in their
periodical migrations. Other large-sized sharks frequent such parts
of the coast as offer them abundance of food; whilst the majority of
the smaller kinds are shore fishes, rarely leaving the bottom, and
sometimes congregating in immense numbers. The movements of
sharks resemble in some measure those of snakes, their flexible
body being bent in more than one curve when moving.
Sharks are most numerous in the seas between the Tropics, and
become scarcer beyond, a few only reaching the Arctic circle; it is
not known how far they advance southwards towards the Antarctic
region. Some species enter fresh waters, and ascend large rivers,
like the Tigris or Ganges, to a considerable distance. The pelagic as
well as the shore species have a wide geographical range. Very few
descend to a considerable depth, probably not exceeding 500
fathoms. There are about 140 different species known.
Sharks have no scales like those of other fishes; their
integuments are covered with calcified papillæ which, under the
microscope, show a structure similar to that of teeth. If the papillæ
are small, pointed, and close set, the skin is called “shagreen;” rarely
they are larger, appearing as bucklers or spines, of various sizes.
These fishes are exclusively carnivorous, and those armed with
powerful cutting teeth are the most formidable tyrants of the ocean.
They have been known to divide the body of a man in two at one
bite, as if by the sweep of a sword. Some of the largest sharks,
however, which are provided with very small teeth, are almost
harmless, feeding on small fishes only or marine invertebrates.
Others, particularly of the smaller kinds, commonly called “Dog-
fishes,” have short or obtuse teeth, and feed on shells or any other
animal substance. Sharks scent their food from a distance, being
readily attracted by the smell of blood or decomposing bodies.
In China and Japan, and many other eastern countries, the
smaller kinds of sharks are eaten. Sharks’ fins form in India and
China a very important article of trade, the Chinese preparing from
them gelatine, and using the better sorts for culinary purposes. The
fins are obtained not exclusively from Sharks but also from Rays,
and assorted in two kinds, viz. “white and black.” The white consist
exclusively of the dorsal fins, which are on both sides of the same
uniform light colour, and reputed to yield more gelatine than the other
fins. The pectoral, ventral, and anal fins pass under the
denomination of black fins; the caudal fin is not used. One of the
principal places where shark fishery is practised as a profession is
Kurrachee. Dr. Buist, writing in 1850 (“Proc. Zool. Soc.” 1850, p.
100), states that there are thirteen large boats, with crews of twelve
men each, constantly employed in this pursuit; that the value of the
fins sent to the market varies from 15,000 to 18,000 rupees; that one
boat will sometimes capture at a draught as many as one hundred
sharks of various sizes; and that the number total of sharks captured
during the year amounts probably to not less than 40,000. Large
quantities are imported from the African coast and the Arabian Gulf,
and various ports on the coast of India. In the year 1845–46, 8770
cwt. of sharks’ fins were exported from Bombay to China.

First Family—Carchariidæ.
 Eye with a nictitating membrane. Mouth crescent-shaped, inferior.
Anal fin present. Two dorsal fins, the first opposite to the space
between pectoral and ventral fins, without spine in front.
Carcharias.—Snout produced in the longitudinal axis of the body;
mouth armed with a series of large flat triangular teeth, which have a
smooth cutting or serrated edge. Spiracles absent. A transverse pit on
the back of the tail, at the root of the caudal fin.
This genus comprises the true Sharks, common in the tropical,
but less so in the temperate seas. Between thirty and forty different
species have been distinguished, of which one of the most common
is the “Blue Shark” (Carcharias glaucus). Individuals of from twelve
to fifteen feet are of very common occurrence, but some of the
species attain a much larger size, and a length of 25 and more feet.
Fishes of this genus or of closely allied genera (Corax, Hemipristis)
are not uncommon in the chalk and tertiary formations.
Galeocerdo.—Teeth large, flat, triangular, oblique, serrated on
both edges, with a deep notch on the outer margin. Spiracles small. A
pit on the tail, above and below, at the root of the caudal fin. Two
notches on the under caudal border, one of them at the end of the
spine.
 Fig. 112.—Dentition of the Blue Shark
(Carcharias glaucus); the single teeth are of the
natural size.
Three species, of which one (G. arcticus) is confined to the arctic
and sub-arctic oceans. The others inhabit temperate and tropical
seas, and all attain to a very large size.
Galeus.—Snout produced in the longitudinal axis of the body;
teeth equal in both jaws, rather small, flat, triangular, oblique, serrated
and with a notch. Spiracles small. No pit at the commencement of the
caudal fin, which has a single notch on its lower margin.
These are small sharks, commonly called “Tope.” The species
found on the British coast is spread over nearly all the temperate and
tropical seas, and is common in California and Tasmania. It lives on
the bottom, and is very troublesome to fishermen by constantly
taking away bait or driving away the fishes which they desire to
catch.
Zygæna.—The anterior part of the head is broad, flattened, and
produced into a lobe on each side, the extremity of which is occupied
 by the eye. Caudal fin with a single notch at its lower margin. A pit at
the root of the caudal fin. Spiracles none. Nostrils situated on the front
edge of the head.
The “Hammerheads,” or Hammerheaded Sharks, have a
dentition very similar to that of Carcharias, and although they do not
attain to the same large size, they belong to the most formidable
fishes of the ocean. The peculiar form of their head is quite unique
among fishes; young examples have the lateral extension of the skull
much less developed than adults. Five species are known, which are
most abundant in the tropics. By far the most common is Zygæna
malleus, which occurs in nearly all tropical and sub-tropical seas.
Specimens of this species may be often seen ascending from the
clear blue depths of the ocean like a great cloud. Cantor found in a
female, nearly 11 feet long, thirty-seven embryons.—Hammerheads
have lived from the cretaceous epoch.
Mustelus.—The second dorsal fin is not much smaller than the
first. No pit at the root of the caudal, which is without distinct lower
lobe. Snout produced in the longitudinal axis of the body. Spiracles
small, behind the eyes. Teeth small, numerous, similar in both jaws,
obtuse, or with very indistinct cusps, arranged like pavement.
The “Hounds” are small Sharks, abundant on the coasts of all the
temperate and tropical seas; two of the five species known occur on
the coasts of Europe, viz. M. lævis and M. vulgaris. Closely allied as
these two species are, they yet show a most singular difference, viz.
that a placenta is developed in the uterus for the attachment of the
embryo in M. lævis (the Γαλεὁς λεȋος of Aristotle, to whom this fact
was already known); whilst the embryons of M. vulgaris are
developed without such placenta (see J. Müller, “Abhandl. Ak. Wiss.”
Berl. 1840). The Hounds are bottom fish, which feed principally on
shells, crustaceans, and decomposing animal substances.

Several other genera belong to the family Carchariidæ, but it will

be sufficient to mention their names:—Hemigaleus, Loxodon,
Thalassorhinus, Triænodon, Leptocarcharias, and Triacis.
 Second Family—Lamnidæ.
Eye without nictitating membrane. Anal fin present. Two dorsal
fins; the first opposite to the space between pectoral and ventral fins,
without spine in front. Nostrils not confluent with the mouth which is
inferior. Spiracles absent or minute.
All the fishes of this family attain to a very large size, and are
pelagic. But little is known of their reproduction. The first appearance
of this family is indicated by Carcharopsis, a genus from
carboniferous formations, the teeth of which differ from those of
Carcharodon only by having a broad fold at the base. In the chalk
and tertiary formations almost all the existing genera are
represented; and, besides, Oxytes, Sphenodus, Gomphodus, and
Ancistrodon, which are known from teeth only, have been considered
generically distinct from the living Porbeagles.
Lamna (Oxyrhina).—The second dorsal and anal are very small.
A pit at the root of the caudal, which has the lower lobe much
developed. Side of the tail with a prominent longitudinal keel. Mouth
wide. Teeth large, lanceolate, not serrated, sometimes with additional
basal cusps. On each side of the upper jaw, at some distance from the
symphysis, there is one or two teeth conspicuously smaller than the
others. Gill-openings very wide. Spiracles minute.

Fig. 113.—Upper and lower

tooth of Lamna.

Of the “Porbeagles,” three species have been described, of which

the one occurring in the North Atlantic, and frequently straying to the
British coasts (L. cornubica), is best known. It attains to a length of
ten feet, and feeds chiefly on fishes; its lanceolate teeth are not
adapted for cutting, but rather for seizing and holding its prey, which
it appears to swallow whole. According to Pennant it is viviparous;
only two embryoes were found in the female which came under his
observation. Haast has found this species also off the coast of New
Zealand.
Carcharodon.—The second dorsal and anal are very small. Pit
at the root of the caudal, which has the lower lobe well developed.
Side of the tail with a prominent longitudinal keel. Mouth wide. Teeth
large, flat, erect, regularly triangular, serrated. On each side of the
upper jaw, at some distance from the symphysis, there is one or two
teeth conspicuously smaller than the others. Gill-openings wide.
One species only is known (C. rondeletii), which is the most
formidable of all Sharks. It is strictly pelagic; and appears to occur in
all tropical and sub-tropical seas. It is known to attain to a length of
40 feet. The tooth figured here, of the natural size, is taken from a
jaw 20 inches wide in its transverse diameter (inside measure), each
half of the mandible measuring 22 inches.[36] The whole length of
the fish was 36½ feet.
Carcharodon teeth are of very common occurrence in various
tertiary strata, and have been referred to several species, affording
ample evidence that this type was much more numerously
represented in that geological epoch than in the recent fauna. Some
individuals attained to an immense size, as we may judge from teeth
found in the Crag, which are 4 inches wide at the base, and 5 inches
long, measured along their lateral margin. The naturalists of the
“Challenger” expedition have made the highly interesting discovery
that teeth of similar size are of common occurrence in the ooze of
the Pacific, between Polynesia and the west coast of America. As we
have no record of living individuals of that bulk having been
observed, the gigantic species to which these teeth belonged must
have become extinct within a comparatively recent period. Nothing is
known of the anatomy, habits, and reproduction of the surviving
species, and no opportunity should be lost of obtaining information
on this Shark.
 Fig. 114.—Tooth of
Carcharodon rondeletii.
Odontaspis.—The second dorsal and anal are not much smaller
than the first dorsal. No pit at the root of the caudal. Side of the tail
without keel. Mouth wide. Teeth large, awl-shaped, with one or two
small cusps at the base. Gill-openings of moderate width.

Large Sharks from tropical and temperate seas; two species.

Alopecias.—The second dorsal and anal very small. Caudal fin of
extraordinary length, with a pit at its root. No keel on the side of the
tail. Mouth and gill-openings of moderate width. Teeth equal in both
jaws, of moderate size, flat, triangular, not serrated.
This genus consists of one species only, which is known by the
name of “Fox-shark” or “Thresher.” It is the most common of the
larger kinds of Sharks which occur on the British coasts; and seems
to be equally common in other parts of the Atlantic and
Mediterranean, as well as on the coasts of California and New
Zealand. It attains to a length of fifteen feet, of which the tail takes
more than one half; and is quite harmless to man. It follows the
shoals of Herrings, Pilchards, and Sprats in their migrations,
destroying incredible numbers. When feeding it uses the long tail in
splashing the surface of the water, whilst it swims in gradually
decreasing circles round a shoal of fishes, which are thus kept
crowded together, falling an easy prey to their enemy. Statements
that it has been seen to attack Whales and other large Cetaceans,
rest upon erroneous observations.
Selache.—The second dorsal and anal very small. A pit at the
root of the caudal fin, which is provided with a lower lobe. Side of the
tail with a keel. Gill-openings extremely wide. Teeth very small,
numerous, conical, without serrature or lateral cusps.
 Also this genus consists of one species only, the “Basking Shark”
(Pélerin of the French). It is the largest Shark of the North Atlantic,
growing to a length of more than thirty feet. It is quite harmless if not
attacked; its food consisting of small fishes, and other small marine
animals swimming in shoals. On the west coast of Ireland it is
chased for the sake of the oil which is extracted from the liver, one
fish yielding from a ton to a ton and a-half. Its capture is not
unattended with danger, as one blow from the enormously strong tail
is sufficient to stave in the sides of a large boat. At certain seasons it
is gregarious, and many specimens may be seen in calm weather
lying together motionless, with the upper part of the back raised
above the surface of the water; a habit from which this Shark has
derived its name. The buccal and branchial cavities are of
extraordinary width, and, in consequence of the flabby condition of
those parts, the head presents a variable and singular appearance in
specimens lying dead on the ground. This peculiarity, as well as the
circumstance that young specimens have a much longer and more
pointed snout than adult ones, has led to the erroneous opinion that
several different genera and species of Basking Shark occur in the
European seas. The branchial arches of Selache are provided with a
very broad fringe of long (five to six inches) and thin gill-rakers,
possessing the same microscopical structure as the teeth and
dermal productions of Sharks. Similar gill-rakers have been found in
a fossil state in the Crag of Anvers in Belgium, proving the existence
of this Selachian type in the tertiary epoch. Nothing is known of the
reproduction of this fish. The latest contributions to its history are by
Steenstrup in “Overs. Dansk. Vidensk. Selsk., Forhandl.” 1873, and
by Pavesi in “Annal. Mus. Civ. Geneva,” 1874 and 1878.

Third Family—Rhinodontidæ.
No nictitating membrane. Anal fin present. Two dorsal fins, the
first nearly opposite to the ventrals, without spine in front. Mouth and
nostril near the extremity of the snout.
This small family comprises one species only, Rhinodon typicus,
a gigantic Shark, which is known to exceed a length of fifty feet, but
is stated to attain that of seventy. It does not appear to be rare in the
western parts of the Indian Ocean, and possibly occurs also in the
Pacific. It is one of the most interesting forms, not unlike the Basking
Shark of the Northern Seas, having gill-rakers like that species; but
very little is known of its structure and mode of life. It is perfectly
harmless, its teeth being extremely small and numerous, placed in
broad bands; it has been stated to feed on tang, an observation
which requires confirmation. The snout is very broad, short, and flat;
the eyes are very small. A pit at the root of the caudal fin which has
the lower lobe well developed; side of the tail with a keel. A
characteristic figure of this fish has been given by A. Smith in his
“Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,” Plate 26, from a
specimen which came ashore at the Cape of Good Hope.

Fig. 115.—Dentition of Notidanus indicus. a,

teeth in function; b, teeth in reserve; u, upper, and l,
lower, tooth, of natural size.

Fourth Family—Notidanidæ.
 No nictitating membrane. One dorsal fin only, without spine,
opposite to the anal.
Notidanus.—Dentition unequal in the jaws: in the upper jaw one
or two pairs of awl-shaped teeth, the following six being broader, and
provided with several cusps, one of which is much the strongest.
Lower jaw with six large comb-like teeth on each side, beside the
smaller posterior teeth. Spiracles small, on the side of the neck. No pit
at the root of the caudal fin. Gill-openings wide, six in number in
Hexanchus, seven in Heptanchus.
Four species are known, distributed over nearly all the tropical
and sub-tropical seas; they attain to a length of about fifteen feet.
Fossil teeth belonging to this type have been found in Jurassic and
later formations (Notidanus and Aellopos).

Fifth Family—Scylliidæ.
Two dorsal fins, without spine: the first above or behind the
ventrals; anal fin present. No nictitating membrane. Spiracle always
distinct. Mouth inferior. Teeth small, several series generally being in
function.
Scyllium.—The origin of the anal fin is always in advance of that
of the second dorsal. Nasal cavity separate from the mouth. Teeth
small, with a middle longer cusp, and generally one or two small
lateral cusps arranged in numerous series. Eggs similar to those of
the Rays (Fig. 79, p. 167).
The fishes of this genus are of small size, and commonly called
“Dog-fishes.” They are coast fishes, living on the bottom, and feeding
on Crustaceans, dead fishes, etc. None of the eight species known
have a very wide distribution, but where they occur they are
generally sufficiently abundant to prove troublesome to fishermen.
They inhabit most parts of the temperate and tropical seas. On the
British coasts two species are found, the “Larger” and “Lesser
spotted Dog-fish,” Scyllium canicula and Scyllium catulus, which are
said to be more plentiful among the Orkney Islands than elsewhere.
They are scarcely ever brought to market; but the fishermen of some
localities do not disdain to eat them. Their flesh is remarkably white,
a little fibrous, and dry. In the Orkneys they are skinned, split up,
cleaned, and then spread out on the rocks to dry for home
consumption. The skins are used for smoothing down cabinet-work.
It would be worth while to apply the fins of these and other Sharks,
which are so extensively used in China for making gelatine soups, to
the same purpose in this country, or to dry them for exportation to
the East. Most of the species of Dog-fishes are spotted, and those of
the allied genera, Parascyllium and Chiloscyllium, very handsomely
ornamented.
Closely allied to Scyllium is Pristiurus, from the coasts of Europe,
which is provided with a series of small flat spines on each side of
the upper edge of the caudal fin.
Fossil forms of Dog-fishes are not scarce in the Lias and Chalk:
Scylliodus, Palæoscyllium, Thyellina, Pristiurus.
Ginglymostoma.—The second dorsal fin opposite to, and
somewhat in advance of, the anal. Eyes very small; spiracle minute
and behind the eye. Nasal and buccal cavities confluent. The nasal
valves of both sides form one quadrangular flap in front of the mouth,
each being provided with a free cylindrical cirrhus. The fourth and fifth
gill-openings are close together. The teeth stand either in many series,
each having a strong median cusp and one or two smaller ones on
each side (Ginglymostoma), or they stand in a few (three) series only,
the foremost only being in function, and each tooth having a convex,
finely and equally serrated margin (Nebrius).
Four species from the tropical parts of the Atlantic and Indian
Oceans, attaining to a length of some 12 feet. Pelagic.
Stegostoma.—The first dorsal above the ventrals, the second in
advance of the anal, which is very close to the caudal. Tail, with the
caudal fin, exceedingly long, measuring one-half of the total length.
Eyes very small, spiracle as wide as, and situated behind, the orbit.
Nasal and buccal cavities confluent. Snout very obtuse; upper lip very
thick, like a pad, bent downwards over the mouth, with a free
cylindrical cirrhus on each side. Teeth small, trilobed, in many series,
occupying in both jaws a transverse flat subquadrangular patch. The
fourth and fifth gill-openings are close together.
The single species (St. tigrinum) for which this genus has been
formed, is one of the commonest and handsomest sharks of the
Indian Ocean. Young individuals keep generally close to the coasts,
whilst the adult, which are from 10 to 15 feet long, are not rarely met
in the open ocean. The colour is a brownish yellow, ornamented with
black or brown transverse bands, or with snuff-coloured rounded
spots; hence this shark is frequently mentioned by the names of
“Zebra-Shark” or “Tiger-Shark.”

Fig. 116.—Chiloscyllium trispeculare, from North-western Australia.

Chiloscyllium.—The first dorsal fin above or behind the ventrals.
Anal fin placed far behind the second dorsal, and very close to the
caudal. Spiracle very distinct, below the eye. Nasal and buccal
cavities confluent. Nasal valve folded, with a cirrhus. Teeth small,
triangular, with or without lateral cusps. The two last gill-openings
close together.

“Dog-fishes,” from the Indian Ocean, of small size. Four species

are known, of which one, Ch. indicum, is one of the commonest
shore-fishes on the coasts of this region, extending from the
southern extremity of the African Continent to Japan.
 Fig. 117.—Confluent nasal and buccal cavities of the
same fish.
Crossorhinus.—The first dorsal behind the ventrals, the second
in advance of the anal, which is very close to the caudal. Tail rather
short. Eyes small. Spiracle a wide oblique slit, behind and below the
eye. Nasal and buccal cavities confluent. Head broad, flat, with the
snout very obtuse; mouth wide, nearly anterior. A free nasal cirrhus;
sides of the head with skinny appendages. Anterior teeth rather large,
long and slender, without lateral lobes, the lateral tricuspid, smaller,
forming a few series only. The fourth and fifth gill-openings close
together.
Three species are known from the Australian and Japanese
coasts. They are evidently ground-sharks, which lie concealed on
the bottom watching for their prey. In accordance with this habit their
colour closely assimilates that of a rock or stone covered with short
vegetable and coralline growth—a resemblance increased by the
frond-like tentacles on the side of the head. This peculiarity of the
integuments, which is developed in a yet higher degree in Pediculati
and Lophobranchs, is not met with in any other Selachian. These
Sharks grow to a length of 10 feet.

Sixth Family—Hybodontidæ.
Two dorsal fins, each with a serrated spine. Teeth rounded,
longitudinally striated, with one larger, and from two to four smaller
lateral cusps. Skin covered with shagreen.
Extinct. From carboniferous, liassic, and triassic formations.
Several genera have been distinguished; and if Cladodus belongs to
this family, it would have been represented even in the Devonian.

Fig. 118.—Spine of Hybodus

subcarinatus.

Seventh Family—Cestraciontidæ.
 No nictitating membrane. Two dorsal fins, the first opposite to the
space between pectoral and ventral fins; anal fin present. Nasal and
buccal cavities confluent. Teeth obtuse, several series being in
function.

Fig. 119.—Jaws of Port Jackson Shark,

Cestracion philippi.
 Fig. 120.—Upper jaw of the same, half natural
size.
This family is one of particular interest, because representatives
of it occur in numerous modifications in primary and secondary
strata. Their dentition is uniformly adapted for the prehension and
mastication of crustaceous and hard-shelled animals. The fossil
forms far exceeded in size the species of the only surviving genus;
they make, their appearance with Ctenoptychius in the Devonian;
this is succeeded in the coal-measures by Psammodus,
Chomatodus, Petrodus, Cochliodus, Polyrhizodus, etc.; in the Trias
and Chalk by Strophodus, Acrodus, Thectodus, and Ptychodus. Of
the 25 genera known, 22 have lived in the periods preceding the
Oolitic.
Cestracion (Heterodontus).—Each dorsal fin armed with a
spine in front; the second in advance of the anal. Mouth rather narrow.
Spiracles small, below the posterior part of the eye. Gill-openings
rather narrow. Dentition similar in both jaws, viz. small obtuse teeth in
front, which in young individuals are pointed and provided with from
three to five cusps. The lateral teeth are large, padlike, twice as broad
as long, arranged in oblique series, one series being formed by much
larger teeth than those in the other series.
 Fig. 121.—Cochliodus contortus.

Fig. 122.—Cestracion galeatus, Australia.

Four species are known from Japan, Amboyna, Australia, the
Galapagoes Islands, and California; none exceed a length of 5 feet.
The egg has been figured on p. 168 (Fig. 80).

Eighth Family—Spinacidæ.
No membrana nictitans. Two dorsal fins; no anal. Mouth but
slightly arched; a long, deep, straight, oblique groove on each side of
the mouth. Spiracles present; gill-openings narrow. Pectoral fins not
notched at their origin.
The oldest representative of this family (Palæospinax) occurs at
Lyme Regis; its skin is granular; each dorsal fin possesses a spine;
the teeth in the jaws are dissimilar—the upper being multicuspid,
longitudinally ribbed as in Hybodus, the lower smooth and tricuspid.
Drepanophorus and Spinax primævus occur in Cretaceous
formations of England and the Lebanon.
Centrina.—Each dorsal fin with a strong spine. Trunk rather
elevated, trihedral, with a fold of the skin running along each side of
the belly. Teeth of the lower jaw erect, triangular, finely serrated; those
of the upper slender, conical, forming a group in front of the jaw.
Spiracles wide, behind the eye.
One species, Centrina salviani, from the Mediterranean and
neighbouring parts of the Atlantic; of small size.
Acanthias.—Each dorsal fin with a spine. Teeth equal in both
jaws, rather small; their point is so much turned aside that the inner
margin of the tooth forms the cutting edge. Spiracles rather wide,
immediately behind the eye.
The two species of “Spiny Dog-fishes,” A. vulgaris and A.
blainvillii, have a very remarkable distribution, being found in the
temperate seas of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, but not
in the intermediate tropical zone. They are of small size, but occur at
times in incredible numbers, 20,000 having been taken in one scene
on the Cornish coast. They do much injury to the fishermen by
cutting their lines and carrying off their hooks.
Centrophorus.—Each dorsal fin with a spine which, however, is
sometimes so small as to be hidden below the skin. Mouth wide.
Teeth of the lower jaw with the point more or less inclined backwards
and outwards. Upper teeth erect, triangular, or narrow, lanceolate, with
a single cusp. Spiracles wide, behind the eye.
Eight species are known from the southern parts of the European
seas, and one from the Moluccas; they do not appear to exceed a
length of five feet. According to the observations of E. P. Wright,
some of the species at least live at a considerable depth, perhaps at
a greater depth than any of the other known Sharks. The Portuguese