Aryanization At The Beginning Of History
The arrival of the Aryans marks the beginning of history in South India as it does in the North. Literature and folklore both depict the development of the Aryanization of the South. The knowledge of India south of the Vindhyas is not evident in works written in the North until around 600 B.C., but it has grown as the centuries have passed.
The Puranas and the Epics both have stories about the name Agastya that are told in a charming manner to preserve the memory of this significant and expansive cultural movement. Parasurama is a hero in yet another clearly more recent cycle of tales that aims to explain the characteristics of Kerala’s institutions and nation in particular.
The established southern boundary of Aryan territory was the Vindhya range. The Aryas’ home, Aryavarta, was the region here between the Himalayas and the Vindhya Mountains in addition to between the eastern and western oceans, according to Manu.
According to Bhandarkar, the far more central and western section of the (Vindhya) range, where the rivers Chambal and Betva originate, was given the name Pariytra due to its location likely on the border of their site, or range of communication.
Aryan Fold Betook
According to a fairly new song from the Rig-Veda, someone who was kicked out of the Aryan fold turned his feet south and went there (dakshipada). The Aitareya Brahmana talks about Bhima, who was the king of Vidarbha (Berar). The aforementioned Brahmana along with the Sankhayana Srautarstra say that Visvamitra sent his fifty sons who were jealous of Sunahsepha Devarata to live on the edges of Aryavarta. The Dasyus, who include the Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, Pulindas, and Mütibas, are their descendants.
The Aryanization of Northern India had by the time these texts were written become complete, but little had been accomplished south of the Vindhyas; only one established Aryan state, Vidarbha, was known, and the rest of the South was populated by non-Aryans.
The tale of the sons of Visvamitra suggests that some of the more intrepid Aryans may have traveled among them, married their women, and raised mixed-blood families who were despised by the “purer” Aryans of the north. At this point in history, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact date, but 1000 B.C. may be a good approximation.
The Aitareya Aranyaka refers to Cherapdh, the Cheras, as being one of the 3 peoples who disobeyed particular ancient laws, signaling the passage to the following stage. However, the text is ambiguous, and its content is far from established. However, if we were to take it to relate to the Cheras, it would be evidence that Malabar’s customs and habits began to diverge from those of the rest of the South fairly early on. But there is no additional pre-existing evidence for this.
The Grammarian Panini
Which of the following is said to have flourished around the year 600 B.C. says that the only place south of the Narmada on the west is Asmara, a country close to the source of the Godavari. In the east, he only knows about Kalinga. In the Buddhist text Sutta Nipata, it says that a teacher named Bavaria left Kosala and lived in a village on the Godavari in the Assaka area of Dakshinapatha. His followers are said to have gone to Ujjain, Mahishmati (Mändhta) on the Narmada, and Patitthana (Paithan) in the Mulaka area to meet the Buddha. A story says that Bavarian read the Vedas and performed sacrifices based on the Vedas.
The extreme southern nations of Pandya, Chola, and Kerala are mentioned by Katyayana, a fourth-century B.C. grammarian who was likely from the south and who added to Panini’s aphorisms to update his grammatical system. The Asokan edicts, which last mention Ceylon as Tambapanni, and Kautilya were both familiar with these nations. Kautilya talks about the Pandyan nation’s pearls and muslins. The location of the Pandyan capital is reminiscent of Mathura in the North, and Greek chronicles, as we have seen, tell the tale of Herakles (in the context, Krishna), who appointed his daughter Pandaria to head the kingdom here in the southern seacoast.
Thus, it is clear that beginning around 1000 B.C., the Aryan migration into the South advanced more or less continuously and quietly, reaching its conclusion before the founding of the Mauryan empire, which covered all of India excluding the southern Half.
Aryanization and civilization of the South
Even a cursory examination reveals that the Agastya stories, which are extensively included in Tamil literature as well as the epics and Puranas, are historically based on this significant process of Aryanization and civilization of the South. He is briefly mentioned in the Rig-Veda as having miraculously sprung from a pitcher (kumbha), but aside from that, he is a real historical figure who writes hymns and has a wife, sister, and possibly a son. He is praised for balancing domesticity and a life of austerity.
Agastya’s connection to the South is highlighted in the Mahabharata, where the plot is more completely explored. His marriage to the princess of Vidarbha, Lopamudra, is recorded along with her request that, before exercising his marital rights, he provides her expensive jewelry and all the comforts she was accustomed to in her father’s home, without in any way compromising his asceticism.
As they travel to Agastya’s airama in the Ramayana, Rama relates to his brother Lakshmana how Agastya, who was dedicated to the welfare of the universe, defeated a dangerous demon and thereby made the globe habitable. He continues by telling the tale of Vätäpi’s demise in a style that, while not exactly identical to the Mahabharata’s, does differ in several minor respects.
The notion that Agastya’s victory against the asuras was what first prepared the Dandakaranya for human (Aryan) occupancy is worth highlighting. The Ramayana has several allusions to Agastya’s fight with the asuras and rakshasas. For instance, Rima is given an explanation of Tätaka’s atrocities against Aryan settlers by the sage Visvamitra.
Agastya’s fathership with Tamil
Both the confirmation and denial that Agastya is the originator of Tamil and that the Tolkäppiyam is based on his work are symptomatic of a perspective on the approaching northern Sanskritic influences. In actuality, neither the Tolkäppiyam nor the introduction by Panam-barrier makes any mention of Agastya. As can be seen, the first mention of the Agattiyam doesn’t come until the eighth or ninth century A.D.
It is also at this time that the Pandyan charters start to proclaim Agastya’s preceptorship over the Pandyas, who are the regular customers of Tamil literature and the Sangam as well as the first authentic Tamil power to achieve political advancement and define a dynasty in the bright sunlight of history.
A hurdle was raised when attempts were made to give Agastya the center stage in the development of Tamil culture. Nearly all of the tales intended to demonstrate Agastya’s connection with Tamil and Tolkäppiyan must have been expanded in later periods. As long as an Aryan influence, or the influence of the Northern speech and culture, was satisfied to quietly and gradually infiltrate the Tamil country and effect a silent alteration of the native elements, everything went as planned.
It is now nearly impossible to tell the components of the composite culture apart because this process started very early and the Tamils accepted it to such an extent.
However, when a theory was advanced, or when a legend was created to demonstrate that Tamil was a spoken language and with it the entire culture of the Tamil country, this was inevitably addressed by denial and the development of legends in the opposite meaning. Legends were disputes even then, as they are for some people today.
Queen of Sheba Visited Solomon in Jerusalem
The queen of Sheba made a trip to Solomon in Jerusalem “with a vast train, bearing spices, much money, and valuable stones” The navy of Hiram, which “brought riches from Ophir,” also “brought in vast plenty of almug trees and precious stones” from Ophir. King Solomon crafted a massive ivory throne and covered it with the finest gold. Last but not least, the monarch had a navy of Tharshish at sea alongside a navy of Hiram.
The navy of Tharshish would arrive every three years with gifts of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. The relationship Solomon formed with Hiram, the Mediterranean ruler of Tyre, was crucial to the prosperity of Jerusalem throughout Solomon’s reign.
Hiram built ships at the Red Sea using Solomon’s realm as a high road, which considerably boosted trade and helped Jerusalem amass enormous wealth. Ophir might be the Abhira nation, and its twin Tharshish might be looked for there as well.
Solomon acquired peacocks and sandalwood (almug), both of which have South Indian names and origins. Even if silver was not produced in India, it’s possible that some of the ivory was, given that the Hebrew, Egyptian, and Greek names for elephants are all ultimately derived from the Sanskrit ibha. Another Indian export that was brought to Palestine around this time was ebony, which was shipped by merchants from Dedan on the Persian Gulf’s southern coast.
Objects Found in South
As early as the seventh century B.C., seafaring sailors are mentioned in Chinese historical chronicles as having brought common Indian goods to China. Most people considered these claims to be unbelievable, but the discovery in the Philippines of several Iron-Age artifacts that closely resemble ones discovered in South India in the first millennium B.C. gives these accounts startling confirmation.
There are also green and blue glass beads and bangles, as well as beads made of semi-precious stones like agate, cornelian, amethyst, and rock crystal. These include iron tools and weapons like knives, axes, daggers, and spear points. Only green glass, which derives its colour from iron, is found in the earlier Iron-Age strata; in the latter, blue glass, which derives its colour from copper, is also present.
The prehistoric glass and iron artifacts found in the southern part of India are comparable to and, in some cases, identical to the iron and glass artifacts. These can be found in the countless dolmen tombs and burials that have been discovered, which almost probably predate the historical Chera, Chola, and Pändyan kingdoms, whose history dates back to the dawn of Christianity or before.
We have unmistakable proof of commercial contacts between the northern Philippines and Southern India dating way back into the first millennium B.C., as evidenced by recent discoveries of glass beads and bracelets in the Malay Peninsula, dolmen tombs in Java, and North Borneo.
