INTRODUCTION: INDIA AND HER ANCIENT CULTURE

THE LAND OF INDIA

The ancient civilization of India grew up in a sharply demarcated sub-continent bounded on the north by the world’s largest mountain range—the chain of the Himalayas, which, with its extensions to east and west, divides India from the rest of Asia and the world. The barrier, however, was at no time an insuperable one, and at all periods both settlers and traders have found their way over the high and desolate passes into India, while Indians have carried their commerce and culture beyond her frontiers by the same route. India’s isolation has never been complete, and the effect of the mountain wall in developing her unique civilization has often been over¬ rated.

The importance of the mountains to India is not so much in the isolation which they give her, as in the fact that they are the source of her two great rivers. The clouds drifting northwards and west¬ wards in the rainy season discharge the last of their moisture on the high peaks, whence, fed by ever-melting snow, innumerable streams flow southwards, to meet in the great river systems of the Indus and the Ganga. On their way they pass through small and fertile plateaux, such as the valleys of Kashmir and Nepal, to debouch on the great plain.

Of the two river systems, that of the Indus, now mainly in Paki¬ stan, had the earliest civilization, and gave its name to India. * More than two thousand years before Christ the fertile plain of the Panjab (“Five Rivers’’), watered by the five great tributaries of the Indus— the Jhelam, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Satlaj-—had a high culture, which spread as far as the sea and along the western seaboard at least as far as Gujarat. The lower Indus, in the region of Pakistan known as Sind, now passes through barren desert, though this was once a well watered and fertile land.

The basin of the Indus is divided from that of the Ganga by the Thar, or desert of Rajasthan, and by low hills. The watershed, to the north-west of Delhi, has been the scene of many bitter battles since at least 1000 b.c. The western half of the Ganga plain, from the region around Delhi to Patna, and including the Doab, or the land between the Ganga and its great tributary river Yamuna (formerly spelt Jumna, Jamna), has always been the heart of India. Here, in the region once known as Aryavarta, the land of the Aryans, her classical culture was formed. Though generations of unscientific farming, deforestation, and other factors have now much reduced its fertility, this was once among the most productive lands in the world, and it has supported a very large population ever since it was brought under the plough. At its mouth in Bengal the Ganga forms a large delta, which even in historical times has gained appreciably on the sea; here the Gangajoins the Brahmaputra, which flows from Tibet by way of the Valley of Assam, the easternmost outpost of Hindu culture.

South of the great plain is a highland zone, rising to the chain of the Vindhya mountains. These are by no means as impressive as the Himalayas, but have tended to form a barrier between the North, formerly called Hindustan, and the Peninsula, often known as the Deccan (meaning simply “South”), a term used sometimes for the whole peninsula, but more often for its northern and central portions. Most of the Deccan is a dry and hilly plateau, bordered on either side by long ranges of hills, the Western and Eastern Ghats. Of these two ranges the western is the higher, and therefore most of the rivers of the Deccan, such as the MahanadI, the Godavari, the Kistna or Krsna, and the Kavirl, flow eastwards to the sea. Two large rivers only, the Narmada and the TaptI, flow westwards. Near their mouths the Deccan rivers pass through plains which are smaller than that of the Ganga but almost as populous. 

The south-eastern part of the Peninsula forms a larger plain, the Tamil country, the culture of which was once independent, and is not yet completely uni¬ fied with that of the North. The Dravidian peoples ofSouthern India still speak languages in no way akin to those of the North, and are of a different ethnic character (p. 24f), though there has been much intermixture between Northern and Southern types. Geographically Ceylon is a continuation of India, the plain of the North resembling that of South India, and the mountains in the centre of the island the Western Ghats. From Kashmir in the North to Cape Comorin in the South the sub-continent is about 2,000 miles long, and therefore its climate varies considerably. The Himalayan region has cold winters, with occasional frost and snow.

 In the northern plains the winter is cool, with wide variation of day and night temperature, whereas the hot season is almost intolerable. The temperature of the Deccan varies less with the season, though in the higher parts of the plateau nights are cool in winter. The Tamil Plain is continuously hot, but its temperature never rises to that of the northern plains in summer.

The most important feature of the Indian climate is the monsoon, or “the Rains ”. Except along the west coast and in parts of Ceylon little rain falls from October to May, when cultivation can only be carried on by carefully husbanding the water of rivers and streams, and raising a winter crop by irrigation. By the end of April growth has practically ceased. The temperature of the plains rises as high as 110° F. (43° C.) or over, and an intensely hot wind blows. Trees shed their leaves, grass is almost completely parched, wild animals often die in large numbers for want of water. Work is reduced to a minimum, and the world seems asleep.

Then clouds appear, high in the sky; in a few days they grow more numerous and darker, rolling up in banks from the sea. At last, in June, the rains come in great downpouring torrents, with much thunder and lightning. The temperature quickly drops, and within a few days the world is green and smiling again. Beasts, birds and insects reappear, the trees put on new leaves, and the earth is covered with fresh grass. The torrential rains, which fall at intervals for a couple of months and then gradually die away, make travel and all outdoor activity difficult, and often bring epidemics in their wake; but, despite these hardships, to the Indian mind the coming of the monsoon corresponds to the coming of spring in Europe. For this reason thunder and lightning, in Europe generally looked on as inauspicious, have no terrors for the Indian, but are welcome signs of the goodness of heaven .

It has often been said that the scale of natural phenomena in India, and her total dependence on the monsoon, have helped to form the character of her peoples. Even today major disasters, such as flood, famine and plague, are hard to check, and in older times their control was almost impossible. Many other ancient civilizations, such as those of the Greeks, Romans and Chinese, had to contend with hard winters, which encouraged sturdiness and resource. India, on the other hand, was blessed by a bounteous Nature, who demanded little of man in return for sustenance, but in her terrible anger could not be appeased by any human effort. Hence, it has been suggested, the Indian character has tended to fatalism and quietism, accepting fortune and misfortune alike without complaint.