India: A History. Revised and Updated

INDIA A HISTORY

By the same author

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INDIA

A HISTORY: From the Earliest Civilisations to the Boom of the Twenty-First Century

JOHN KEAY

For Tara

Copyright © 2000, 2010 by John Keay All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or [email protected]

Originally published in Great Britain in 2000 by HarperCollins
Publishers
Maps and tables by Jillian Luff
Printed in the United States of America

eBook ISBN: 978-0-8021-9550-0

Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West
www.groveatlantic.com

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

List of Charts and Tables

Author’s note to the Second Edition

Introduction

1 The Harappan World: c3000–1700
BC

2 Vedic Values: c1700–900
BC

3 The Epic Age: c900–520
BC

4 Out of the Myth-Smoke: c520–c320
BC

5 Gloria Maurya: c320–200
BC

6 An Age of Paradox: c200
BC
–c300
AD

7 Gupta Gold: c300–500
AD

8 Lords of the Universe: c500–700

9
Dharma
and Defiance: c700–c900

10 Natraj, the Rule of the Dance: c950–1180

11 The Triumph of the Sultans: c1180–1320

12 Other Indias: 1320–1525

13 The Making of the Mughal Empire: 1500–1605

14 Mughal Pomp, Indian Circumstance: 1605–1682

15 From Taj to Raj: 1682–1750

16 The British Conquest: 1750–1820

17 Pax Britannica: 1820–1880

18 Awake the Nation: 1880–1930

19 At the Stroke of the Midnight Hour: 1930–1948

20 Surgical Procedures: 1948–1965

21 The Spectre of Separatism: 1962–1972

22 ‘Demockery’: 1972–1984

23 Midnight’s Grandchildren: 1984–

Source Notes

Bibliography

Index (incorporating Glossary)

ILLUSTRATIONS

Bronze ‘dancing girl’ from Mohenjo-daro in Sind province, Pakistan, c.2000
BC
. (©
Clive Friend)

Mohenjo-daro, the ‘Mound of the Dead’. (©
Clive Friend)

Sunrise at Dashashwamedh Ghat on the Ganga (Ganges) at Varanasi (Benares). (©
Clive Friend)

A scene from the
Ramayana
by an early-nineteenth-century artist.
(Courtesy of The Bridgeman Art Library)

The Ashoka column atop Feroz Shah Khalji’s fort in Delhi, inscribed in the third century
BC
. (©
Clive Friend)

The Lion capital from Sarnath (near Varanasi). (©
Clive Friend)

The rock at Shahbazgarhi (Panjab province, Pakistan) bearing Ashoka’s Edicts. (©
Clive Friend)

Bactrian coins of a Bactrian Greek king of the second century
BC
, and of Kanishka, the great Kushan king of uncertain date. (©
Clive Friend)

Relief panel from one of the gateways to the Great Stupa at Sanchi, first century
BC
. (©
Clive Friend)

Bracket carved as a
yakshi
on one of the Sanchi gateways. (©
Clive Friend)

Seated Buddha of the Gandhara school, second century
AD
. (©
Clive Friend)

Seated Buddha from Sarnath, fifth century
AD
. (©
Clive Friend)

Fresco of a Bodhisattva in Cave 1 at Ajanta, Maharashtra, fifth century
AD
. (©
Clive Friend)

The eighth-century Shore Temple at Ellora in Mamallapuram near Madras. (©
Clive Friend)

The late-eighth-century Kailasa temple in Maharashtra, cut from solid rock for the Rashtrakuta king Krishna I. (©
Clive Friend)

Man Singh palace in Gwalior fort, Madhya Pradesh, 1486–1516. (©
Clive Friend)

Qutb Minar, Delhi. (©
Clive Friend)

Lingaraja temple, Bhuvaneshwar, Orissa, c.1100. (©
Clive Friend)

Interior dome of Adinatha (Vimal Vasahi) temple, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, eleventh–twelfth century. (©
Clive Friend)

Tughluqabad Fort, Delhi, 1321–5. (©
Clive Friend)

Daulatabad (Devagiri, Deogir) Fort, Maharashtra. (©
Robert Harding Picture Library)

Hoysaleshwara temple at Dorasamudra (Halebid), Karnataka, mid-twelfth century. (©
Clive Friend)

Babur and his son Humayun, sixteenth-century miniature.
(Courtesy of The Bridgeman Art Library)

Akbar hunting tigers, from the
Akbar-nama
, c.1590.
(Courtesy of The Bridgeman Art Library)

Akbar giving an audience, from the
Akbar-nama
.
(Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum/The Bridgeman Art Library)

Rejoicing over the birth of Salim (Jahangir) at Fatehpur Sikri, from the
Akbar-nama
.
(Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum/The Bridgeman Art Library)

Taj Mahal, Agra, from across the Jamuna river, 1630–52. (©
Clive Friend)

Equestrian portrait of Shah Jahan, seventeenth century.
(Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum/The Bridgeman Art Library)

Ali Adil Shah II of Bijapur, Deccani miniature of c.1660.
(Courtesy of The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham/The Bridgeman Art Library)

St Mary’s Anglican church, Fort St George, Madras, 1679. (©
M. Amirtham/DPA/Images of India)

Sir Henry Havelock relieving the British besieged in Lucknow in 1857, from an illustration by Howard Davie of c.1910.
(Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)

The Golden Temple (Hari Mandir) at Amritsar, eighteenth century and later. (©
Ilay Cooper/DPA/Images of India)

Statue of the Jain saint Gomateshwara, Sravana Belgola, Karnataka.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Relief medallion from the Bharhut stupa, originally in Madhya Pradesh.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

The Great Stupa (no. 1) of Sanchi, near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, first century
BC
.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Relief panel from the Amaravati stupa, originally in Andhra Pradesh, second–third century
AD
. (©
The British Museum)

Relief panel from the Amaravati stupa.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Relief panel from the Amaravati stupa.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Exterior of cave temple (no. 2), Badami, Karnataka, late sixth century
AD
.
(A. White © Robert Harding Picture Library)

The Jyotirlinga group of temples, Aihole, Karnataka.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

The Rajarajeshwara temple at Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, early eleventh century.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Sculptural panel from the Chenna Kesava temple, Belur, Karnataka, twelfth century. (©
Clive Friend)

Jahaz Mahal (‘Ship Palace’), Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, late fifteenth century.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Jaya Stambha (‘Victory Tower’) at Chitor(garh), Rajasthan, 1457–68.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

The tomb of Humayun in Delhi, completed 1565.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

The tomb of Itimad-ud-Daula in Agra, completed 1628.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Gol Gumbaz (‘Great Tomb’) of Muhammad Adil Shah II in Bijapur, Karnataka, c.1659.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

The City Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan, from 1567.
(Courtesy of Archaeological Survey of India)

Robert, Baron Clive of Plassey, engraving after a portrait by J. Drummond.
(Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)

Warren Hastings, first British governor-general of India, from a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
(Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)

Lakshmi Bai, Rani of Jhansi.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

The Indian National Congress at Allahabad, December 1888.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

George Nathaniel, Lord Curzon.
(Courtesy of Mary Evans Picture Library)

‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ – Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

Gandhi leading the April 1930 Salt March.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

Protestors on the streets of Calcutta during the Quit India movement of 1942.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the Simla Conference, 1945.
(Courtesy of The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)

Indira Gandhi. (©
FM/DPA/Images of India)

Rajiv Gandhi at the cremation of his mother, Indira Gandhi, 1984. (©
DPA/Images of India)

MAPS

South Asia – Physical

South Asia Today

The Harappan world c1900
BC

Northern India at the time of the Buddha (c400
BC
)

Alexander the Great’s invasion, 327–6
BC

India under Ashoka

The Karakoram route

Peninsular trading stations in the first century
AD

Western India c150
AD
(with Shatavahana cave-sites)

Gupta conquests

Harsha’s probable empire c640
AD