Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Influences from the North
While the Indus Valley civilisation may not have affected South India, the same cannot be
said for the Aryan invasion. The Aryanisation of the south was a slow process, but it had a
profound effect on the social order of the region and the ethos of its inhabitants. The north-
erners brought their literature (the four Vedas - a collection of sacred Hindu hymns), their
gods (Agni, Varuna, Shiva and Vishnu), their language (Sanskrit) and a social structure that
organised people into castes, with Brahmins at the top.
Over the centuries other influences flowed from the north, including Buddhism and Jain-
ism. Sravanabelagola in Karnataka, an auspicious place of pilgrimage to this day, is where
over 2000 years ago the northern ruler Chandragupta Maurya, who had embraced Jainism
and renounced his kingdom, arrived with his guru. Jainism was then adopted by the trading
community (its tenet of ahimsa, or nonviolence, precluded occupations tainted by the tak-
ing of life), who spread it through South India.
Emperor Ashoka, a successor of Chandragupta who ruled for 40 years from about 272
BC, was a major force behind Buddhism's inroads into the south. Once a campaigning
king, his epiphany came in 260 BC when, overcome by the horrific carnage and suffering
caused by his campaign against the Kalingas (a powerful kingdom), he renounced violence
and embraced Buddhism. He sent Buddhist missionaries far and wide, and his edicts
(carved into rock and incised into specially erected pillars) have been found in Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka. Stupas were also built in South India under Ashoka's patronage,
mostly along the coast of Andhra Pradesh, although at least one was constructed as far
south as Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
The appeal of Jainism and Buddhism was that they rejected the Vedas and condemned
the caste system. Buddhism, however, gradually lost favour with its devotees, and was re-
placed with a new brand of Hinduism, which emphasised devotion to a personal god. This
bhakti (surrendering to the gods) order developed in South India around AD 500. Bhakti
adherents opposed Jainism and Buddhism, and the movement hastened the decline of both
in South India.
