India: Exploring its heroes (from Delhi)

We have now spent three days in Delhi, quite intensely busy while still staving off jet lag.  The first day started with a visit to the National Museum, to get an overview of Indian history which seemed necessary for understanding the things we will later see.  It was a good call, and an impressive museum.  We learned about how ancient this culture is: many thousand years of civilization and recorded history, a lot from the point of view of a Californian, where 200 years is a long time.  We also learned how many layers of people came in from other places, mostly the Middle East and the North, and conquered the farmers living in the Indus River Valley, where Delhi is and the main center of power has generally remained.  There were Turks and Aryans, who turn out to be Persians/Iranians, creating great Muslim empires on top of the existing Hindu culture. 

The greatest early leader was Ashoka, in about 300 BC, who was at first a warlord, conquering and gathering territories, and later became converted to Buddhism by his Buddhist wife (Buddhism had begun with Siddhartha’s life in about 700 BC), and became a peace lover and a great philanthropist, caring for people and animals alike and spreading Buddhism in his kingdom and beyond.  He wrote his edicts about how to live by carving them on giant stones all over his empire (nearly all of India today).  We saw one such stone at the museum.  Apparently historians only learned to read his language recently, so Ashoka is only recently fully appreciated, and is now a national hero.  His edicts are quite impressive, including the right of people to a good life and medical care, a prohibition of sacrifices and commitment to be nice to animals, tolerance between groups, and no war.  We could learn from him today!  I really like the idea of this “early billboard” in the shape of a carved stone.  Labor intensive but obviously durable.

Obviously I am quite taken by Ashoka, because his ideas are so ahead of his time and in contrast to things that came after (more conquerers), but he ruled peacefully for another 40 years, acting these things out.  After he died, his kingdom was overtaken by Alexander the Great and became part of the Greek Empire briefly, then was later conquered by Aryans from Persia and other Islamic groups, eventually evolving into the great Moghul Empires of the 13-15 century, which built the Taj Mahal and other of the great historical works (the Red Forts in both Agra and Delhi, many great mosques, etc.)  Many of these are the monuments for which India is most famous.

Early civilizations of India went on to be very early and very great, something we learn nothing about in our West oriented American educations, and which I intend to do something about at Peregrine School!  There are too many fascinating stories to tell, but people were making bronze statues, like the dancing girl below, using the lost wax technique, many centuries BC, and numerous developed and well organized cities, with elaborate street grids and irrigation systems, existed in the Indus River Valley well before Christ as well.  (See below)  As usual, a key drawing point was rich river valleys which supported agriculture, the main grains being wheat and barley.  As always, these formed the basis of civilization, creating enough people with leisure time from producing food to make cities, art, and all the rest.  Some of these valley civilizations later became drier, as climates changed (something to think about), and these cities remain only as ruins, some only recently re-discovered.  Others became consistently great power centers, such as Delhi. 

I was there!  Lorie in front of Ashoka’s stone, imported to the museum. 

Something I didn’t know until this trip is that wheat remains the key grain, along with lentils and beans (dal) as legumes, in India’s north, resulting in various chapattis, naan breads, samosas, and more.  Whereas in the south we will encounter more rice.  We were initially surprised not to be given rice with meals.  It is typical to eat the saucy dishes with dipped chapattis, as Mexicans do with beans and tortillas.  This is like China, with noodles and dumplings in the north and rice in the south.  To me, everything always comes down to climate and agriculture- to the ecology of place, and what it makes possible.

Dancing girl made of bronze using sophisticated lost wax technique.

Indus River Valley Civilization.  Irrigation runs from rivers through whole cities.