South Asia: Creating Dilemmas of Diversity - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 158

such as mining or pottery . Also, there was trade by land
and sea with Mesopotamia. Indian crews navigated the
Persian Gulf with the assistance of a “compass-bird”—
a crow that would fly directly to the nearest point of land.
There is evidence that Indic cotton was a valued trade
item. T To this day , cotton is India' is most important export.
But the Harappans could not control all of nature' s
forces. Mohenjo-Daro was rebuilt at least ten times and
apparently was abandoned in panic during a severe
flood. Recent research shows that despite their mastery
of water control, it was climatically-changed water bal-
ances that were instrumental in the fluctuating fortunes
of the Harappan civilization. Steep decline took place
from 1800 to 1700 BC, corresponding with a decrease in
rainfall. Water problems and food shortages combined
with other crises to drive the Dravidians southward.

there were dense jungles in the lowlands. Eventually an-
other dry period narrowed the rivers and the jungle re-
ceded. Iron implements furthered settlement on the
Ganges plain, and forest dwellers were either conquered
or absorbed. In the Mahabarata, these non-Aryan forest
dwellers were called nagas or “serpent people.”
Unlike the Harappans, the Aryans did not have a
script for their spoken word. For centuries, the Ra-
mayana and other stories were memorized and passed on
verbally . A script was not developed until the fourth cen-
tury BC, but religious taboos prevented the writing of re-
ligious tomes. Nevertheless, Sanskrit is rich in pejorative
terms, and these were willingly used to denigrate non-
Aryan peoples. Many were described as physical freaks,
and these images became part of medieval European per-
ceptions of the East.

Seeds of Caste Division
The Aryans, whose own name means “noble” or “first
born,” used the term dasa for people with darker com-
plexions. Initially , the term meant “enemy” and later,
“subject.” Dasa always implied dark-skinned people, and
the preference for lighter skin persists. Even today , mar-
riage advertisements often list “wheaten complexion” as
a desirable characteristic.
Social norms including social hierarchies were clari-
fied in the Shastra legal texts. These were the “Laws of
Manu,” Manu being the first man. Vedic societies became
organized around four classes of people, or varnas , which
means “color.” The four classes were brahmins (priests);
kshatriyas (warriors); vaishyas (peasant farmers); and
sudras (serfs). Subjugated people, including the darker
Dravidians, could only enter the system at the lowest level.
Those who had closest contact with earth, fire, or water,
such as artisans, smiths, and millers, were despised. The
most skilled artisans were Dravidian. Sudras were excluded
from ritual affairs because they were seen as impure, and
ritual purity was of the essence. This was the precursor of
the caste system , which still endures. The English word
caste comes from the Portuguese word casta , used to
designate people of different colors in Brazil.
By the sixth century BC, regional rivalries had pro-
duced a string of states across the northern plains. A so-
phisticated commercial sector evolved, with all the
necessary trappings such as coinage, taxes, and bureau-
crats. Prosperity fostered economic specialization and
varna subdivisions, known as jatis , multiplied.
A jati is typically defined and named by occupation.
It is also an extended kinship group that practices group

INV ADERS FROM THE NORTHWEST
The Aryans
Around 1500 BC, lighter-skinned, nomadic herders
called Aryans appeared out of Central Asia and
Afghanistan. The Sanskrit-speaking Aryans thrust
through the Khyber and other passes of the Hindu Kush
onto the plains of the northwest, where another wetter
period nurtured pasturage suitable for their animals. It is
important to note that while Aryans would have far-
reaching influences in South Asian history , from the start
they were largely incorporated into existing cultures. In
other words, India was not “Aryanized.” Rather, it be-
came even more diverse and complex.
The Aryans brought cows and horses to India. In
fact, cows were an early form of wealth and currency .
Eventually these would become sacred in Hinduism. Ap-
parently , horses were employed to pull chariots—the ba-
sis of cavalry warfare, which spread quickly throughout
the continent. Horses made possible the expansion of
empires, fostered the militarization of states, and enabled
more expedient collection of taxes in kind. As horse-
breeding in India was difficult, they were brought from
Arabia and Persia at great expense.
While copper and bronze were already in use, the dis-
covery of iron near Patna, combined with Aryan knowl-
edge of iron-working, was instrumental in territorial
conquests. Used for weapons, tools, and plows, iron facil-
itated both forest removal and agricultural settlement.
Settlement along the Ganges had been limited to the
Doab and the northern foothills and tributary valley , pos-
sibly because rivers were more easily crossed there and