This is a blog post that has been a long time in making. Not because I did not have enough material. Unfortunately, I need a hard push and plenty of time on hand to write something. As I'm stuck at home now due to a gout flare-up, what better time to write than now!
I've been very fascinated by history, not just Indian, but anything that I can get my hands on. Reading biographies and history books is like second nature and my wife feels that I continue to buy books just to taunt her, as many are unread.
I had planned to take my family to visit Hampi - both as a religious retreat and also as a learning tour to teach kids a little more about the kingdom of Vijayanagara, its art, and architecture. I continue to get their taunts that the West is where all great things are made, and I continue to shrug a little at that. At least to give a historical grounding - I thought this was the right trip to make at the right time. Great things can be built/created/made anywhere in the world.
Also, the timing was right as summer was off and it's a good time of the year to visit the arid regions (called "Bayaluseeme" in Kannada, the local language) of Hospet, the large town adjoining the ruined city of Hampi. The visit was made in September, already 3 months back!
This is likely to be a long blog post. But, I'll try to stitch the various pieces together. Interestingly, there are works of wonder that still exists from the Vijayanagara days. There are still remnants of their contribution that we still use every day. At least, I eat it every day.
Historical background (Medieval South India):
The ruins of Hampi, though beautiful, are reminders of the last great local Indian empire. There have been quite a few empires before them that were more powerful and more spread out. Like the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Chalukyas, Gangas, and Gajapatis (most of these kingdoms were local kingdoms that were not yet conquered by the Turks/Sultanates).
To give a summarized view (that is my view) of medieval to pre-modern non-Turkish Indian history, the last great time period where Indians really had a big technological edge was during the times of the Cholas. Post 11th - 12th centuries, there was a gradual inward-looking mentality (preservation more than expansion) that developed. Northern India was firmly under the control of the Turks. Knowledge makes people explorers, whereas the destruction of knowledge makes people inward-looking.
Some of the greatest learning centers in the world during the medieval times were: Nalanda (present-day Bihar which operated as an institute of higher education from 400 AD to 1200 AD), Vikramshila (again, present-day Bihar which was built as a secondary school to give some competition to Nalanda from 800 AD to 1200 AD) and prior to that, Takshashila (present-day Punjab of Pakistan from 1000 BC to 400 AD). Many of the great inventors, linguists, educators, poets, and medical experts traveled to these institutes to learn.
It is no coincidence that higher education institutions moved from Takhsashila to Nalanda sometime during 400 AD when the white hun (pre-Islamic invaders) onslaught had started. The education mechanism during those times likely involved reading books/parchment papers/medical treatises, etc by becoming a resident student for multiple years at these universities. Chinese scholars spent multiple decades copying some of the texts, translating them into Chinese to take back to their cities, so they can build similar learning centers. It is only through their stories, that we come to know about the details of these places. Oriental scholarship, therefore, was very confined to very few centers.
The destruction of these universities takes back learning by many decades or even hundreds of years. The learnings of Greeks and Romans were lost to the world until around the 1300s/1400s when they started becoming more popular with universities in Britain, France, Germany, and more importantly Italy teaching students.
Until the Gutenberg printing press was invented in 1440, the way you mass-published books was by sitting painstakingly to copy entire texts by hand. The task usually extended to multiple decades if you wanted to copy whole treatises. It's kind of funny that many of the older Sanskrit hymns, and lessons are very expressive with very few words (many are even written as summary poems - so they can be learned faster). It was like the Twitter of the old :-)
Anyway, I am digressing. So, let's get back to a summarized background story. One clear indication of power centers is knowing how religions spread, and their origins. Four of the top ten religions today in the world have origins in India - Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism.
The destruction of Nalanda and Vikramshila by the Khalji's in 1200 AD was like the passing of the baton, so to speak. The new centers of learning - the Universities of Oxford/Cambridge/Bologna came to be founded around the 11th - 12th centuries. Just as we Indians were turning inward-looking, spurred by new universities and the printing press (which magically reduced the time-to-market of books), the west started galloping ahead.
Printed books vastly improved the knowledge consciousness of the Europeans and ushered in the era of Renaissance in the mid-1400s/1500s. The old learnings of Greeks and Romans were becoming more popular with books being translated and published in local European languages.
It's also a magical reminder that humankind can do wonderful things and forget many of the wonderful things it has done if there is no proper teaching (or passing-on) mechanism.
Sir Isaac Newton, the famous English scientist, once said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Of course, Newton wasn’t literally standing on the shoulders of giants. Newton was explaining that his ideas didn’t come from him alone. He relied on the ideas of those who came before him. When Newton used the word giant, he meant people who were giants in the scientific community.
The problem in medieval India was, that it had lost wholesale the works of all the previous giants when the universities of Nalanda and Vikramshila burned down. Supposedly, it is said, it took over 3 months to burn those vast libraries down.
It's kind of interesting to imagine the possibilities of having some of these really old institutions like Nalanda/Vikramshila to survive, right? Who knows what they had in store.
So, after the Cholas - who were the last great Eastern ship-builders exploring the Indian Ocean, the Indian nation-state was basically getting insulated. Preservation became more important than growth. Even to this date - most elderly people talk about not losing (instead of growing). Gold, today is the most preferred form of investment for most Indians - because it is ingrained in the psyche that anyone can steal, even the government.
Anyway, medieval India was still a pretty rich place to be. The exports had always been more than imports for India until the late 18th century. Industrialization basically tilted the scale so to speak. The advent of oil tilted the export-import balance even more so.
Before the technology age, labor arbitrage was the principal arbitrage known to man. Now, in today's world - it is (1) labor, (2) capital, and (3) knowledge (or technology), in ascending order of hierarchy.
Since labor arbitrage was well known to the Indian kings - they employed that to their advantage with great building works. They had basically lost the technological advantage they previously held for many centuries which had prevented people from conquering their lands and ruling them much before.
The slowly winding down pre-modern kingdoms of India were now becoming the students from being the teachers of before. Though they had a significant export surplus, they were learning the art of war from the early gun-powder empires (Ottoman Turks, Safavid Persians, and Delhi Sultanates) and the use of fast cavalry and arquebus/muskets from Europeans.
One such kingdom that learned fast was Vijayanagara. This kingdom was built on the ruins of three main kingdoms which had succumbed to the Delhi Sultanate's onslaughts - Hoysalas, Kakatiyas, and the Pandyas. It is a shame that even today a well-written book about the genesis and demise of these pre-modern empires does not exist.
Vijayanagara Empire:
The "Karnata" kingdom (today called "Vijayanagara Empire" due to the ruins of their famous capital city, Vijayanagara) was started in 1300s by two generals - Hakka and Bukka Raya of Kakatiya kings who were captured, converted to Islam, and sent to rule present-day Hampi/Anegundi. Their kingdom stood rock solid for 300 odd years (actually close to 500 years if you consider their splinter weaker kings post 1600s); in comparison, British empire in India spanned little over 200 years.
A learned sage Vidyaranya reconverted the brothers to Hinduism and laid the foundation stone for the new empire. Their successors were capable individuals who quickly reclaimed most of the territories that were lost to the Sultanates of the north. The wily South Indians were always able to snub the Delhi Sultanates for over three centuries (until Vijayanagara fell apart: that's a long story for another day).
They came to rule over all of today's South India (states of Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, and parts of Orissa and Maharashtra). Their cultural and trade influences often extended to Srilanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Much of the East Asian Hindu influence is either from this period (Bali, etc) or from the previous Chola periods.
The Vijayanagara kings were great patrons of arts, culture, agri-sciences, and other pursuits that helped their subjects. Unfortunately, the last major scientific pursuits of Indians were all done before 1200 AD. Post destruction of Nalanda, it is rare to see an Indian scientific/medical achievement. It is not possible to note what they had done scientifically. Most work, if any is long gone.
However, the actual engineering works built during those times were still excellent. Indians of the 14th and 15th centuries were probably the best civil engineers, architects, hydraulic engineers, and metal workers of their time.
Cultural Renaissance:
Just like there was a European Rennaissance that was mainly started in the field of art and culture which then translated to scientific re-awakening, there was one that happened during the Vijayanagara times. Same time period - late 14th century, early 15th century.
The best-known art forms - Carnatic art & music, Dasa Sahitya, Nritya, and Naatya (dance forms) were created during those times. They were basically the heady times when new ideas seemed to have taken root - just like they did in Europe.
Also, the ports of Musiri (present-day Cochin) and Karwar-Goa (Present day Goa) became very significant after the capture of Constantinople in 1453. Reason - the land route for trade, called the silk road was now closed (or at least became impractical due to the huge trade tariffs imposed by the Turks).
The problem was, that renaissance thinking just got cut in the early 16th century with the fall of the Vijayanagara empire. It is one of the "ifs" we will never know.. Could the same renaissance thinking not have propelled India to similar heights as Europe?
The inherent stability just disappeared, I believe. "PEACE" is the ultimate lesson of all the oriental religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jaininsm, Sikhism (even though it was formed out of war) and influenced religions (borrowed heavily from Buddhism) - Confusionism, Taoism and Zenism.
Peace and stability are the bed rocks of progress, scientific mind set and growth mindedness. It leads to innovation. Instability leads to chaos, confusion, stupidity, status games, one upmanship and more importantly to intolerance. India has been a land of tolerance for its inbred stability of minds. The cultural heritage is one of peace with nature, that's how 1000s of years of progress was built upon.
Some remnants of that thought still remains in our lizard brains. Hopefully, that leads us to reawaken and grow again after a thousand years of decline and decay.
Anyway, I'm again digressing. Back to the medieval South India.
Trade and Conflict:
There were principally few players in the trade game of the early 1400s. Persians, South Indians, and Chinese. During this time, all of Persia had basically become Islamic in nature.
The last of the Parsis (old Zoroastrian followers - merchants and traders had moved into Indian coasts - around Maharashtra and Gujarat around this time). Some of the most iconic companies in India today are founded by this select group of Parsis - Tatas, Wadias, Pallonjis, etc.. What a mistake to throw them away Middle East??
Anyway, the sea trade was now open in Persia in mid 1400s to early 1500s. It was soon monopolized by Arabic traders and pushed out local South Indian settlements which seemed to have been there for hundreds of years (if not for more than a millennia). The East sea routes were still open, and none seemed to have a monopoly.
With one leg of sea trade - Persia/Egypt to India (Musiri/Goa) under Arabic domination - Europeans were now forced to pay punitive taxes. They were the affected party! The India-to-China sea trade had no new players. But, essentially, it became a game of punishing taxes for Europeans to trade with India.
Essentially, the Indian states (read: Vijayanagara) on one side had nothing to lose. Instead of getting taxes from South Indian traders and Arab traders, now they were getting taxes from Arabs alone (who had now a monopoly on the Persian coasts with Arabic government support). They were anyway used to a trade surplus and except for the sulking Indian traders, they did not have to pacify other citizens much.
Just imagine if the Vijayanagara kings of those times were able to think centuries ahead. They could have just demanded that traders be allowed to trade with no favoritism on the Persian coast side!
Just imagine in the present day, where American superiority is being challenged by wily Chinese who are buying up all the rare earth mines Lithium, Permanent magnets, etc. 50 years from now, American kids will learn that they gave up their superiority for simple reason that Chinese created a monopoly on all key renewable material supply and increased prices on them 10x! Phew...
Anyway, these things did not happen in 1500s, Indian Vijayanagara kings never really thought along those lines. The Portuguese discovery of India with a new sea route happened. Vasco da Gama reaches India in 1498. Well within 50 years of the Arab conquest of Constantinople.
Out of the two key ports - Musiri and Goa, one of the ports -- Goa was conquered by Adil Shah of Bijapur (from Vijayanagara kings in the late 1470s). The other was under the command of Zamorin of Kerala who was a vassal state of Vijayanagara.
It seems that the kings of Vijayanagara, though good at administration, decent at war-making, and patron of arts; were not so great at strategic long-term thinking. "Strategy" in the very long time horizon is the no. 1 weapon. Long-term games can only be played by very few people. Very very few.
The Zenith - 1509 to 1529:
Krishnadeva Raya (the greatest king of Vijayanagara) came to power in 1509. He was probably the last great Hindu king of India. He is still revered across South India. He was the principal reason Hampi grew to the size it did (and the remains that we still see today are of monuments he had commissioned to be built). He was a great administrator and a brilliant tactical commander.
He won back territory his grandfather had lost to both the Bijapur Sultanates of the North and Gajapati's of the East.
Some of the tact with which he won the wars are worth studying. He basically created a learning culture. He used Portuguese help during the siege of the Raichur fort to defeat the Bijapur sultan to claim back lost territory. He was mystified by the long range of muskets the Portuguese had, and asked his engineers to copy that as he had excellent ironworkers. His mini-war industry started making better muskets during that time which was critical in his war efforts.
But, before all of his victories, he actually helped the Portuguese conquer the port of Goa from Adil Shah of Bijapur. His key advisor, Thimmarasu had supposedly told him to control the ports of his empire (and wisely so). He seemed to have ignored him.
He could have as well conquered it himself. He is said to have given the manpower and materials needed for the conquest. What did he get in return - horses! At exorbitant rates. He did not care about rates, or so it seems to me.
With that one foothold, it eventually paved the way for European entry into India. It's unlikely that he could have prevented their dominance altogether, as the technical capabilities and scientific-mindedness of Europeans had surpassed Indians at that time.
However, it does seem that the cultural awakening and renaissance thinking of Indians was also getting started at that time. Immediately after their downfall - the same pattern of inward thinking re-dominated for many centuries.
A strong sustained rule of Vijayanagara might have enabled a different history for India! Who knows, if this might have happened. These are alternate histories that one can only ponder upon.
It is sad, that right after his death, the same renaissance thinking (where he developed firearms, gunpowder, etc) did not sustain, and his kingdom was overrun by Bijapur Sultanates in 1565 (35 years after his passing away).
What's their lasting impact? What did they build, that stands even today?
After his famous victories against the Bijapur Sultanates and Gajapatis of Orissa, he commissioned many engineering works: temples, buildings, waterways, canals, and man-made tanks for irrigation.
Water is of prime importance when it comes to agriculture. He seemed to have taken that to heart.
Exactly 500 years back - he constructed some of the best-in-class canals of those times - "Raya kaluve", "Basava kaluve", "hiriya kaluve" and "Thurthu kaluve". A manmade tank "Kamalapura tank", the largest holding tank still stands.
During my visit of one week, I was able to gather from locals, as to who built these canals. There were two principal architects of the canals: 1) Arya Krishna Bhatta and 2) Garalugante Tippa. We'll not get their names from God-Google.
For absolutely 500 years, they have been the main waterways of the region. A semi-arid region of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, today has the highest production of Rice/Acre. All are irrigated by these canals.
In the 1960s the Government of India built high-level canals (HLC) and low-level canals (LLC) on river Tungabhadra. This irrigation network irrigates 6.5L Acres of land in two states of India.
The main variant of rice consumed by all South Indians is "sona masoori". It is known for its unique texture and flavor. A major portion of this rice variety is native to the lands irrigated by these canals.
The great temples of Hampi, though in ruins, are great to look at. Some of the stone carvings are works of great artists of those times and remind us that our forefathers had the capability to build wonderful, beautiful works of high caliber.
The canals though, seem to be built to last. For giving us these oftentimes forgotten waterworks, we should thank the kings of Vijayanagara!
