Why did long-duration empires never exist in India?
The joke of a Republic modern Indians are so inexplicably proud of has barely managed to survive for a mere 70 years- and is increasingly looking likely to balkanize before it completes a Century, and the freedom-lovers that sustain it have the temerity to question the achievements of the Guptas and the Chalukyas and the lineages of our noble ancestors, the likes of whom will never be seen on Earth? Lelwa.
But I am generous and, unlike my civilizational foes, I am honest as befits as an Arya- not that I claim to be one. I admit that the misbegotten Republic has also had its day; being a direct continuation of the Company Raj and Angrej Sarkar, it boasts of a legacy of more than two hundred years as a political entity which is, again, perfectly within the norm for Empires or, rather, Imperial-esque bodies. As much as the Republic of India- or for that matter, any such organization- be it the Totalitarian Neoconfucianists of People’s Republic of China or the Militaristic Oligarchies of the United States of America- might pretend otherwise, they are Empires.
It all boils down to pride.Italian city states, post-Christian Central Europe - all wanted to claim at least cultural successor-ship to Rome's legacy. Rome was that one girl everyone wants to have but cannot. Rome therefore got remembered in annals as that continuously coveted girl whom everyone wanted to sleep with, some did, some did not and some raped her because she plainly refused but then again - they all got what they wanted.Now contrast with the Gupta Empire - A people who hate their own past will not tend to remember it like some prize woman coveted over times, nor will they try remembering it as a time when they were the best. It boils down psychologically to the fact that while Rome became European invaders' trophy courtesan, the Gupta period became the forgotten whore of history.Empires are not called empires because they recorded themselves as such in history. Empires are called empires only because its peoples' descendants choose to recognize history that way.For instance, the Mughal 'empire' got destroyed and de-facto abolished many times before its dynastic end had actually arrived and yet - books call it the Mughal empire. Reason - the people who wrote those books would rather remember Turko-Mongol Islamic rule as a continuous prized memory of history rather than whatever your status explains.Psychology of people remembering history is normally the answer to questions pertaining to later interpretation of history as well.
Family lines may persist for Centuries, given there are sons to perpetuate them- and given the family is but the extension of a People, it is obvious that Kingdoms persist likewise, often for millennia. A stable Orissa- the Three Kalingas inhabited by Oriyas, for instance, has been known since the dawn of the Iron Age and, as a unified political entity, has had a continued existence for the better part of three millennia by now. But Empires are different; the projection of a Civilization’s gestalt living upon the Earth through a suitable medium. And like any living being, a Civilization has its dawn and its death- and this projects upon the Empire it has birthed.
On average, an Empire lasts for around 250 years- a single season of a Great Cycle of around a millenia- through which it plays its leitmotif to an uncaring World.
The Marathas of the Hindu Pad Padsahi of the Bhonsles, notwithstanding their valiant- and in many ways, successful- effort to save Dharma from extinction, were as much prisoners of Fate as they were of the great Autumn Cycle of this Age- and this was portrayed in their gradually taking on the aspects of the Evils they’d sworn to destroy- Factionalism, Mediocrity, Corruption, Civil strife, Stagnation, and the law of Causality. The Seeing can see the rot within the Republic even now- the putrid utilitarianism and unthinking arrogance of the bourgeoisie, the blind corruption and brute aspect of the smug bureaucrats, the servile mercenarism and inherent cowardice of the Military- and the less said of the Masters above us all, the better. The Maratha Hindu Pad Padshahi suffered in Autumn as the Mughals did- but the Republic is the child and glutton and whore of Winter like the Angrej colonial tyranny whose illegitimate heir it is, and it shows.
The Empire is what it is- and this cannot be denied.
The Empire is what lasts. Not the People- despite what the Commies might claim, not its Families- despite what Thapar and her ilk might claim, not its Institutions- despite what Acermoglu and Co might claim. The Empire lasts by pure force of its own Existence; and as Rohit Patnaik remarked, it changes the very fabric of Reality by the mere truth of it being.
The legacy of the Gupta Empire, in particular, is the most debatable in this regard. Here is the foundation of the Reality of Bharata, as we still know it- shouting in silence at its maggot-like heirs in our customs, our beliefs, from the festivals we celebrate, the clothes we were, the gods we choose to worship- and the silence over it is deafening. In terms of Civilizational impact, it might equal even the Career of Emperor Vikrama. To challenge its legacy is absurd; to deny it, heretical- and yet the Republic has hardly shied away from the challenge. What other proof can be required that the Republic, twisted and unnatural as it is, is a true Empire in its own stunted manner?
There's a defacto omerta among India's Eminent Historians when it comes to the Gupta Empire. The only reason they don't actively deny that it existed is because a lot of the original research had been already done by the Angrej and the early Indian ASI and it'd have been unfeasible to bury the evidence.As such, the great scholars and the Educated classes expend no little effort in trying to wipe out the idea of a Gupta Empire - or the Empire of the Gurjara- from public sources.It's for this reason that excavations on Classical sites has been at a virtual standstill from the one at Kaushambi in the 60s; why you only hear of digs from Harappan sites or Ancient period locations- because they can be conveniently dismissed off as “Dravidian” or “Buddhist”.It's for this reason that not one - one- piece of Armour or pane of Glass- save the ones at Kopia found by the Germans- or even a fucking cup from the Gupta period has been found in the past 50 years. Even the coins you hear about are only “discovered” when local villagers donated massive caches they discover all the time…Kaushambi had eleven meter walls build over eight meters high platforms, and it wasn't even a military center. There used to nine storey buildings built for pilgrims. Keshavadeo at Mathura, built by Emperor Chandra II, would've towered half as big again as Sri Jagannath at Puri- and it predated the latter by more than five centuries. A purification system capable of handling two million liters was discovered back in the 70s. Huein Tsang saw copper statues over a hundred feet tall.Ever read a word about the Gupta Bureaucracy? Anything about the Military organization or Police system? Yes, there was a Police system.
The Roman Empire that is routinely bandied around as an example of longevity went through multiple dynasties; with the final four hundred years spent as a rump state scarcely bigger than Madhyadesha. Emperor Harsha might’ve been descended from the Guptas, had Gupta Kings in his Court, and was succeeded by Gupta Emperors- but find me one- one - historians who would describe “his” Empire as part of the greater Gupta Imperium. You hear of absurdities such as the “Later Guptas”- what on Earth is a “Later Gupta”? The same iconography, the same bureaucracy, the same family- but the gods forbid we associate any form of continuity which might glorify the Guptas any more than the original Angrej and Alamana historians might have!
It is for this reason that there’s this absurd “Civil War” which crops up during Emperor Samudra’s reign- because of the “pretender Kacha” coins. There was no “pretender Kacha”; he was a High-King- we know this because Emperor Samudra wrote this himself- the guy was his grandfather! But admitting that the “pretender coins” were legitimate would imply that the Guptas were already dominating almost all of North India outside Punjab decades before the “accepted” start of the Empire in 320 CE with advances in metallurgy, coinage, and military easily more than a half century ahead of the “schedule”- and we can’t have that, can we?
it is for this reason there’s zero talk of Gupta armour, Gupta trade, Gupta texts, or anything that might point to a Gupta World. Nothing- the Guptas were “ a feudal” Empire. “A Feudal Empire”? Even Feudal Empires require Bureaucrats! And the Gupta Bureaucracy was, even with the scarce data we have, far more extensive and detailed than anything until the British Raj. Even now- without any of my notes with me, I can write ream about the Gupta Bureaucracy- and it didn’t just end with the Guptas, did it? The Palas were using Gupta titles and Gupta official terminology centuries afterwards.
But damned if anyone after Radhabinod Dutta could be half arsed to study it. BTW how long since the poor man passed away? 50 years? 60?-Moi the A, of course!
But, Abhilash, the Guptas left no records! Surely they were but savages!
How many records did the Sassanids leave, pray? I count one; the other one in question was a medieval translation made by a Zoroastrian priests from translations made by the scholars studying political science at the University at Vallabhi- but I see no one challenging them over their supposed “illiteracy”- even with the silence on… well, you know who.
Read this: Did the Chinese Empire and the Persian Empire know each other? What was their relationship?
Imagine- that there’d been a similar question about the Guptas and China. Imagine there’d been a similar query on what the Chinas thought of Bharatas and Bharata trade and Bharata life in general. Does anyone- ANYONE- remotely think that the Answers would’ve been as effusive in their praise or detailed in their description?
The only answer in that Page that actually bothers to list down ALL known references to China-Parsuka relations is Mine- but anyone reading that thread would be under the impression that the Chinas and Parsukas had nothing to do but fill reams and reams of papers on “flourishing trade” and “good relations” and what not! One claims that “…though it seems counter-intuitive… the Chinese and Persian Empires had greater contact with each other than the Chinese and Indian Empires had…”.
No, they didn’t!
I count three entire books on Bharata alone, plus multiple mentions and texts. I count barely five mentions of Parsuka kingdoms in Classical Chinese records- and gods only know what skulduggery has been done upon them since; half the Chinese texts I’ve seen appear to have been gone over by a particularly imaginative poet during the Ming and Qing periods, not that the Song didn’t do their share of embellishment as well. The entire period from the Jin to the Tang dynasties reads like a Fairy Tale! I’ll be laughed at if I tell you the account of Matsyendra travels in the Land of Women, his abandonment of his charges by the King, and how his student Goraksa kidnaps him and turns the pursuers into birds before delivering his account to the Court at Pataliputra- but it’s all kosher if some China chap a thousand years ago gets hold of a magic deer and tells everyone it’s a horse.
And there’s another key aspect of how we perceive “Empires”.
For our eminent historians, hard-headed accounts of Emperor Adityasena’s Officers working along the river Sutlej are “fantastical” and “clear exaggerations”- but for the Chinas, every account of girls turning into will’o’wisps and generals summoning wind spirits is the shining romantic facade that encloses a kernel of prosaic historical fact to be ascertained- and rightly so.
But you scions of the Republics have already rejected not only Dandin’s novels and Medharudra’s poetry but also Mitamisra’s laws and Someshvara’s military sciences- and why not?
The Communist Party of China is, after all, a China Organization. No one in their right minds would claim the Republic is anything more than a bastardized Angrej Colonial State, down to the marginalization of Hindus as “effeminate tricksters with no honour” to quote Suthcliffe. Why shouldn’t the Republic loathe the Guptas or try tear down the aura behind them? And this would’ve been obvious to all- if the Republic’s lovers weren’t as wise as the Frogking and as keen-eyed as Sishupala’s seabirds.
1- The Guptas were orthodox brahmanical puppets with total blind belief in the Shastras but they were also forging Hindu texts to prop up their own government. So- what were they? Opportunistic defacto Atheists skilled in realpolitik or hide-bound superstitious Theists?
2- The Guptas ran a loosely-held government which effectively ended outside the walls of Pataliputra but they were also skilled in brain-washing their vassals into surrendering their cities to them at the merest request, forcing an absurd Imperial calendar upon them that even the Gupta Emperors appear to admit was a shoddy rip-off of the Vikrama Samvat, and
3- The Guptas possessed a papier-mache army whose troops had no organization, no equipment, no training, no skill, nothing expect sheer force of numbers which they used to dominate others who just fell like ninepins at the mere sight of a Gupta Army over the horizon- but they apparently had no issues marching this- what was it?- 600,000-strong military from Kanyakumari to Kubha to Samtata, a logistical feat that would have had Napoleon committing Seppuku in the streets of Paris out of shame.
Oh- sorry- just remembered that these days we deny that the Gupta ever reached Kanyakumari; all those declarations were all “clearly” exaggerations- but we are all sure that the Mughals ruled all of the Continent- even though I’m hard-pressed to name any Oriya king in the “Mughal Empire” over Orissa who wasn’t rebelling, resigning, or being dragged out of bed, flayed alive and nailed to his own door by his own troops for obeying the <<REDACTED>> so-called Emperor.
There is only one Emperor over Orissa- and his Realm will last till the breaking of the World. Jai Jagannath!
For the better part of seven hundred years- almost three Seasons of a Great Cycle, a single Empire stretched over the Continent- from Kubha to Samtata, stretching from Kanchipuram in the south to the snow-clad mountains of the North- almost of the equal of the Realm of Emperor Bharata himself. Oriya kings in modern-day Andhra sealed their letters with Gupta notations. Gujarata merchants buried caches with hundreds of coins stamped with Emperor Skanda’s frame. Tamil lords were named after Gupta Emperors; the Gurjara lords grew under the shadow of the walls of Ujjaini- the western Capital and seat of Emperor Chandra II himself. Even now- Hindus lift their voices for the restoration of the shrines the Guptas had raised in Ayodhya and Mathura.
Even now- in his heart of hearts, the humble, poor, unread Hindu, accursed by all nations of the World and the educated elite of his own land- whether he knows or not or even recognizes the name, dreams of the restoration of the seven Centuries-long Gupta Mahamandalam, of the Guptas and the Pushyabhutis and the Gurjaras- Lords of the Eagle Standards.
And why not- did you believe it was a coincidence that Eagles perched atop the Imperial Standards?
I am Manu, I am Surya, I am the enlightened sage Kaksivan;I am the sage Kutsa, son of Arjuni, I am fire-like luminous Usana!I have bestowed the Earth upon the Arya, & rains upon those bringing Sacrifice!I have poured forth the roaring limitless waters and before me, stand the Devas in attendance,I have shattered the ninety nine forts of Sambhara, and the hundredth in aid of Divodāsa Atithigva!Marutas, I present to you this swift-winged Eagle, Supreme among Raptors, Best of Birds,Mighty of wing and unyoked by Chariots, it has brought to Manu oblations for Sacrifice loved by the Devas!-Indra, Rig Veda
The very image of the Guptas- and the ones who followed in their footsteps- came from the most overt political and imperialistic iconography in the eternal Vedas. To them was given the Eagle, to them was given silver-wheeled Chariots, to them were given Rains. Upon them was bestowed Aryahood, and thus they dwell in the Golden Halls of Indra, untouched by grief or sorrow or doubt. We dwell on this accursed Earth, accursed before the eyes of the lines of our Ancestors. Who will bemoan us now?
Comments
Post a Comment