Indian History

In India polygamy has existed since recorded history. Though the general populace of India in the time of Rig Veda were monogamous, polygamy was prevalent in the ruling class. Added to this, brahmans and others sections who can afford polygamy also had more than one wife.  From the frequent references of polygamous marriages in the ancient Indian literature and legal texts we can safely say that polygamy was not an unknown affair in the social life of ancient Indians.  However, some legal texts discouraged polygamy. Dharma Sutra of Apastamba disallows a married man from marrying for the second time if his wife is of good character and has borne him sons. Kautilya’s  Arthashastra says that in case of a man opting for second marriage, the first wife must be  compensated.

Today India has two famous schools of family law and inheritance; Mitaksara and Dayabhaga. They are named after the medieval legal texts on which they are based.   While most families of Eastern region of India including Bengal and Assam follow the rules of Dayabhaga, while Mitaksara is followed generally by the rest of India. The main difference between these two schools is that while according to the Dayabhaga school, son has a right in the family property only on the death of father, Mitaksara maintains that sons and grandsons have rights over the property even before the death of father. A commentary on the lawbook of Yajnnavalkya, Mitaksara was written by Vijnasevara, who was patronized by Western Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya VI (c. 1075-1127). Dayabhaga was compiled by eminent medieval jurist Jimutavahana in the 12 th century.

The recent anti-corruption agitation in India has brought the issue of corruption to the forefront of conscious attention. People may be ruing that today’s India has become a hotbed of corruption. However, it is not that India in ancient times was free from the influence of the hydra-headed evil of corruption. What distinguishes today’s India from ancient one, when it comes to corruption, is that while ancient people were able to keep corruption at bay, modern India is finding helpless in rooting out corruption from public life. Corruption thrives on human weakness. It is as old as the human race and has as many facets as human nature itself. There are references to the judicial corruption in ancient India. To check this, high standards for judges were set. A judge has to be gentle, learned, religious and impartial. He should not show any sign of anger. It was suggested that till the settlement of the cases, no private meetings between the judges and litigants should be allow

Narendranath Dutta, better known as Swami Vivekananda, was a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836-1886), a poor priest in a temple at Dakhinesvar in Kolkata. Ramakrishna believed in the truth of all religions. A graduate of the Calcutta University, Vivekananda (1863-1902) carried his master’s message throughout India. Vivekananda was a Vedantist. In 1983 he went to the US and attended the famous “Parliament of Religions” at Chicago. His speech at that august assembly earned him fame and followers throughout the world. New York Herald wrote, “after hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation” Sir Valentine Chirol characterizes Vivekananda as “the first Hindu whose personality won demonstrative recognition abroad for India’s ancient civilization and of her new-born claim to nationhood.”    

In Harappan civilization, trading activities were in a state of flourish.   That the Harappan traders had contact with Mesopotamia can be gauged from the fact that a number of Harappan seals and objects have been found in Sumer. According to experts, the land of Melukha, which finds mention in Sumerian documents, is, in fact, the land of Harappan civilization. Lothal, Surkotda and Balakot in Indus civilization were some of the important coastal towns from where the Harappan products might have found their way to Mesopotamia. From Mesopotamia precious metals and raw materials were exported to Indus civilization. If you take discovery of the Indus seals in Mesopotamian civilization, we can safely come to the conclusion that traders from India actually resided in Mesopotamia. It seems that cotton was the main article of export to Mesopotamia.

Kabir (1440-1510) was a medieval saint who was more modern than our moderns. He was the most radical disciple of Ramanand, the first great Bhakti saint of North India.   A p roduct of Bhakti cult of eclecticism Kabir preached his messages in the 15th century. Kabir was a great humanist. At the root of his humanism which we may call a form of radicalism can be seen in his love of God. He had the courage to repudiate all our scriptures as worthless. Nothing can be said with certainty about Kabir’s birth. He grew up in a family of Muslim weavers. A believer in simplicity, Kabir disparaged ritualism and priest-craft. He disparaged even Sanskrit, the language in which the externals of religion were described. He writes, “O Kabir, Sanskrit is water of the well, the vernacular is a flowing stream. Kabir discarded idol-worship, fasting, alms-giving and pilgrimage. He spoke against asceticism which according to him means nothing if it is not accompanied by bhajan