Āryāvarta
Āryāvarta (
Geographical boundaries
Ganges-Yamuna doab
The Baudhayana Dharmasutra (BDS) 1.1.2.10 (perhaps compiled in the 8th to 6th centuries BCE) declares that Āryāvarta is the land that lies west of Kālakavana, east of Adarsana, south of the Himalayas and north of the Vindhyas, but in BDS 1.1.2.11 Āryāvarta is confined to the doab of the Ganges-Yamuna. BDS 1.1.2.13-15 considers people from beyond this area as of mixed origin, and hence not worthy of emulation by the Aryans. Some sutras recommend expiatory acts for those who have crossed the boundaries of Aryavarta. Baudhayana Srautasutra recommends this for those who have crossed the boundaries of Aryavarta and ventured into far away places.[5]
The Vasistha Dharma Sutra (oldest sutras ca. 500–300 BCE) I.8-9 and 12-13 locates the Āryāvarta to the east of the disappearance of the Sarasvati River in the desert, to the west of the Kālakavana, to the north of the Pariyatra Mountains and the Vindhya Range and to the south of the Himalayas.[6]
From sea to sea
The
The Manava Dharmasastra (ca.150-250 CE) gives aryavarta as stretching from the eastern to the western seas, reflecting the growing sphere of influence of the Brahmanical ideology.[3]
Loss of northwest India
The post-Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation saw a decline of Brahmanism.
The decline of Brahmanism was overcome by providing new services
Other regional designations
These texts also identify other parts of the Indian subcontinent with specific designations. The Manusmṛti mentions Brahmavarta as the region between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati in northwest India. The text defines the area as the place where the "good" people are born, the twice-born who adhere to the Vedic dharma, in contrast to the mlecchas, who live outside the Aryan territory and Vedic traditions.[13] The precise location and size of the region has been the subject of academic uncertainty.[14] Some scholars, such as the archaeologists Bridget Allchin and Raymond Allchin, believe the term Brahmavarta to be synonymous with Aryavarta.[15]
Rulers
The
See also
- Names of India
- Indo-Aryan migrations
- Bharata Khanda
- Airyanem Vaejah, its Zoroastrian counterpart
- History of India
Notes
- Buddha(5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'.
References
- ^ Bronkhorst 2007.
- ^ Samuel 2010.
- ^ a b c Bronkhorst 2011, p. 4.
- ISBN 9004090606.
- ^ Agarwal, Vishal: Is there Vedic evidence for the Indo-Aryan Immigration to India
- ^ Neelis 2010, p. 194.
- ^ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.). India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 70.
- ^ Michael Cook (2014), Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective, Princeton University Press, p.68: "Aryavarta [...] is defined by Manu as extending from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas of Central India in the south and from the sea in the west to the sea in the east."
- ^ Michaels 2004, p. 37-39.
- ^ Bronkhorst 2017, p. 363.
- ^ a b Bronkhorst 2016, p. 9-10.
- ^ Bronkhorst 2015, p. 2.
- ISBN 978-8-12083-110-0.
- ISBN 900-4-09060-6.
- ISBN 978-0-52128-550-6.
- ISBN 9788170171898.
- ISBN 9788180690198.
- ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8.
Sources
- Printed sources
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007). Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India. BRILL. ISBN 9789004157194.
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, BRILL
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (2015), "The historiography of Brahmanism", in Otto; Rau; Rupke (eds.), History and Religion:Narrating a Religious Past, Walter deGruyter
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (2016), How the Brahmains Won, BRILL
- Bronkhorst, Johannes (2017), "Brahmanism: Its place in ancient Indian society", Contributions to Indian Sociology, 51 (3): 361–369, S2CID 220050987
- Michaels, Axel (2004). Hinduism. Past and present. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Samuel, Geoffrey (2010). The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.
- Web-sources
- ^ Aryavarta, Monier Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary (1899)
- ^ Apte, Vaman Shivaram (1957). "Revised and Enlarged Edition of Prin. V. S. Apte's The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary". Retrieved 1 November 2018.
Further reading
- Kane, Pandurang Vaman (1962). History of Dharmaśāstra: (ancient and mediaeval religious and civil law in India). Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
- Neelis, Jason (19 November 2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-18159-5.