Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
11 - Legendary Empires of Ancient India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- About the Cover
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Prologue: The Prehistory of Power: Souls Spirits, Deities
- Part One Kings and Emperors
- 1 Divine Kingship in Mesopotamia
- 2 Pharaohs among the Indestructibles
- 3 Kingship among the Hebrews
- 4 The Deification of Roman Emperors
- 5 The Deva-Rajas in India and Southeast Asia
- 6 The Chinese Mandate from Heaven
- 7 The Japanese Imperial Cult
- Part Two Empires before the Common Era
- 8 The Legendary Empire of the Sumerians
- 9 Legendary Empires of Preclassical Greece
- 10 Patriarchs, Exodus, and the Epic of Israel
- 11 Legendary Empires of Ancient India
- 12 The Legendary Founding of Rome
- Part Three Founders
- 13 Moses: The Israelite Lawgiver
- 14 Buddha and Legends of Previous Buddhas
- 15 The Savior Narratives
- 16 Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam
- 17 The Virgin Mary through the Centuries
- 18 Tonantzin and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Part Four Empires of the Common Era
- 19 Narrative Inventions of the Holy Roman Empire
- 20 The Epic of Kings, Alexander the Great, and the Malacca Sultinate
- 21 The Franks, Charlemagne, and the Chansons de Geste
- 22 The Legendary Kingdom of King Arthur
- 23 Ethiopian Kings and the Ark of the Covenant
- 24 Narratives of the Virgin Queen
- Part Five Ideologies
- 25 Discovery: The European Narrative of Power
- 26 Epics of the Portuguese Seaborne Empire
- 27 Dekanawida and the Iroquois League
- 28 The New England Canaan of the Puritans
- 29 The Marxist Classless Society
- 30 Adolph Hitler: Narratives of Aryans and Jews
- Epilogue: A Clash of Narratives
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
In the subcontinent of India, the idea of the Deva-raja (god-king) arose more than two thousand years ago and subsequently became the central narrative of Indian kingship. In time, kingship became the focus of empires central to Indian epics: The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. Eventually the empires inspired by these epics migrated eastward across what Ptolemy called “India beyond the Ganges,” with imperial narratives of power developing from Thailand to Indonesia. Empires centered on divine kingship in Europe waned with the decline of early cultures, but Indian versions have persisted through centuries of literature, dance, and drama until modern times.
Toward the end of the second millennium BCE, migrants from the Indus River Valley began settling in small communities across northern India in what is now the state of Uttar Pradesh, today the most populous state in India. They brought with them Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, and the Vedas, some portions of which were already centuries old. Later writings, notably the Upanishads, built on these, thus beginning the extensive library of spiritual works that make up Hinduism.
Northern India was fertile, a congenial area for agricultural development among the numerous tributaries of the Ganges River. With the development of substantial villages, Aryan governance was organized by mahakulas (governing families) whose influence spread across regions known as janapadas (great tribal footholds). As village populations increased kings came to dominate governance by 600 BCE. Three centuries later a powerful dynasty had emerged known as the Mauryans centered at Pataliputra on the Ganges River in northeast India. Surviving inscriptions and archaeological excavation of this Mauryan capital have revealed a large fortified city of 150,000 to 400,000 people who dominated a huge territorial region for a brief time (322–185 BCE) that included all of subcontinental India except the southern tip and stretched from Iran in the west to Bangladesh in the east. The most prominent Mauryan king was Asoka, who ruled from 273 to 232 BCE.During this time, India's most expansive epic, the Mahabharata, appeared, which then evolved over the next 400 years. This work, the longest ever composed, is easily read as a spectacular collection of tales and adventures, but it is better understood for its invention of an immense prehistory and backdrop for the Mauryans, whose dynasty and empire were enhanced by the epic.
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- Invented History, Fabricated PowerThe Narratives Shaping Civilization and Culture, pp. 127 - 138Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2020