The Age of the Sages: The Axial Age in Asia and the Near East

4. South Asia before the Axial Age

4 South Asia before the Axial Age We now direct our attention to South Asia and especially the area we know as the Indian subcontinent. In coming chapters, we will discuss the evolution of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in this region. But first, we start with a sketch of this location before the axial ferment to help us understand the transformations that led to the birth of these religions. We are already familiar with a major part of the preaxial Indian world from our discussions of the Indo-Iranian peoples who migrated from the Central Asian steppes. We spent a fair amount of time exploring the religious world of the Indo-Iranians prior to their division. With this chapter, we begin to turn our attention to the development of this tradition through the Indo-Aryans who ultimately settled in India. Just as the tradition that developed in Iran assumed new forms and made significant departures from the ancient religion, so too the Indo-Aryan tradition changed in diverse and novel ways when it entered its new homeland. The Indus Valley Civilization Before we take up the Indo-Aryans’ migration into India, however, we must first consider another culture that occupied this territory long before their arrival. The Indus Valley Civilization, as it is now called, was situated along the Indus and Saraswati River systems in present-day Pakistan and the northwestern portion of the Republic of India. This extensive culture existed at least 1,500 years before the Indo-Aryans appeared. By the time the Aryans began to settle in this area, around 1600 bce, the Indus Valley Civilization was in decline. Yet its vestiges were still potent enough to profoundly influence the evolution of Hinduism. Today, scholars generally believe that Hindu traditions emerged out of the confluence of the ancient Indo-Aryan and Indus religions. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Indus Valley Civilization had been completely forgotten by humanity. Not until 1856, when British 39 engineers accidentally uncovered some of the ruins of this culture, did modern humanity have any idea that there had ever been an Indus Valley Civilization. Today, we know this civilization was the largest of the ancient world. So far, archaeologists have discovered more than seventy cities in an area about the size of Texas. These urban centers were remarkably well planned and organized. The largest may have contained as many as fifty thousand inhabitants at one time. We know very little about the way that Indus dwellers governed themselves or structured their society, but the uniformity of their cities suggests some sort of centralized authority and law enforcement. We can infer from the absence of any significant weapons among the archaeological artifacts that the Indus Valley Civilization was relatively peaceful. We also know that agriculture was the basis of their economy, along with trade with other cultures, most notably the Mesopotamians living along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. What we do not know is their language. There are numerous examples of what most scholars think is Indus writing, but as yet, linguists have been unable to decipher it. Thus, we have no idea what the citizens of this great society called themselves, and we have no literary sources for understanding Indus religion. Our present knowledge is essentially informed speculation based the material artifacts of the ruins. There is simply no textual evidence to help corroborate or refute scholarly inferences. We can say with some confidence that Indus dwellers were deeply concerned with the functions of sexuality and procreation, and that this preoccupation was reflected in their religious practices. Throughout the region, archaeologists have discovered a large number of terra-cotta figurines of women with exaggerated hips and large breasts. Interestingly, no corresponding portrayals of men as icons of sexuality have been unearthed. Rather, to depict male sexuality, Indus artisans created images of horned animals—such as bulls and buffalo—with very powerful flanks and rather obvious male genitalia. In addition to these representations, excavations have turned up an array of stone and clay phalluses and vulvas whose precise function is not certain but which may symbolize divine powers of reproduction and creativity. Without written literature, we can only make educated guesses about these artifacts based on similar findings in other societies and in later Hinduism. Female figurines, similar to those of the Indus Valley, have been unearthed in various parts of the world and are thought to symbolize a divine woman or goddess. Some researchers have argued that these images indicate...