Exploring Society · Chapter 7 — India's Cultural Roots

Look at a great banyan tree. Its roots go deep into the ground, it has a single massive trunk, and its branches spread in every direction, some even dropping new roots of their own. Indian culture is often compared to such a tree.

Roots, trunk and branches. Indian culture is several thousand years old. Like an ancient tree, it has many roots that feed a common trunk. From the trunk grow many branches: art, literature, science, medicine, religion, the art of governance, martial arts and much more. The branches look different from each other, yet they are joined by the same trunk.

Schools of thought. Some of these branches are schools of thought: groups of thinkers or spiritual seekers who share similar ideas about human life and the world. A seeker is someone who searches for the deeper truths of the world, such as a sage, a saint, a yogi or a philosopher.

Spirituality. Many Indian schools of thought are spiritual, that is, concerned with the spirit or soul, called atman in Sanskrit and many Indian languages. Spirituality is the search for a deeper or higher part of ourselves, beyond our everyday personality.

Very old roots. Many archaeologists and scholars think that some roots of Indian culture go back to the Harappan or Sindhu-Sarasvati civilisation you met in Chapter 6. Over time, hundreds of schools of thought grew in India. In this chapter we meet a few early ones:

Why 'schools of thought'? In English, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism are often called 'religions'. But each has many sides: philosophical, spiritual, religious, ethical and social. Many scholars feel the word 'religion' is too narrow for them, so this chapter speaks of 'schools of thought' and 'belief systems'.

Why it matters. By understanding these roots, we can better understand 'India, that is Bharat', and why so many different ways of life have grown together in one land.

Imagine learning thousands of verses by heart, exactly, without ever seeing them written down, and then teaching them to your children, who teach their children, for over a hundred generations. That is how the Vedas have come down to us.

The word. 'Veda' comes from the Sanskrit root vid, meaning 'knowledge'; the word vidya comes from the same root.

Four Vedas. There are four Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. They are the oldest texts of India and among the oldest in the world.

Hymns passed on orally. The Vedas are made of thousands of hymns, prayers in the form of poems and songs. They were composed in the Sapta Sindhava region and were recited, not written. Experts have suggested dates for the Rig Veda anywhere from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BCE. Over 100 to 200 generations, the hymns were memorised through strict training and passed on with hardly any change. Because of this careful transmission, UNESCO, the United Nations body for education, science and culture, recognised Vedic chanting in 2008 as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

Rishis and rishikas. The hymns were composed in an early form of Sanskrit by rishis (male seers or sages) and rishikas (female seers). They addressed many deities, such as Indra, Agni, Varuna, Mitra, Sarasvati and Ushas. Together, the seers and the deities were believed to uphold ritam, truth and order in human life and in the cosmos, the universe seen as an ordered whole.

Many names, one reality. The early seers did not see the gods and goddesses as fully separate. A famous line of the Rig Veda, ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti, means that the supreme reality is one, but the wise call it by many names. Truth was a central value, often another name for the divine.

A call for unity. The last verses of the Rig Veda ask people to come together, speak together, and be united in mind, heart and purpose.

Who lived in the land of the Vedic hymns, and how did they organise their lives? The Vedas give us a few clues.

Janas. Early Vedic society was organised into janas, or clans, large groups of people. The Rig Veda alone names more than 30 janas, such as the Bharatas, the Purus, the Kurus, the Yadus and the Turvashas. Each was linked with a particular region of the northwest of the Subcontinent. Remember that the name Bharata, which later became a name for the whole country, first appears here as the name of a jana.

Government. Not much is known about how janas were governed. The Vedas use the word raja for a king or ruler, and the words sabha and samiti for gatherings or assemblies of people. These assemblies suggest that people met to discuss matters together.

Work. The Vedic texts mention many professions:

A healer was someone who used traditional practices to relieve or cure diseases.

Rituals. Vedic culture also developed rituals called yajna (often said 'yagya'), offered to various deities for the benefit and well-being of an individual or the community. Daily rituals were usually prayers and offerings to Agni, the deity linked with fire. Over time these rituals became more and more complex.

Think about it. A society where people choose their leaders is called a democracy. The sabha and samiti were gatherings of people. Why is it good for people to have a say in decisions? What could happen if they had leaders they did not choose? You will think more about this in the theme on governance and democracy.

Then and now. Many of these professions, farmer, weaver, potter, carpenter, healer, still exist today. Some words, like sabha and samiti, are still used for meetings and committees, and the national Parliament's two Houses are called the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

A boy is told by his angry father, 'I give you to Yama!', the god of death. Instead of crying, the boy goes to meet Yama and asks him: what happens after the body dies? This is the story of Nachiketa, from one of the Upanishads.

The Upanishads. The Upanishads are a group of texts that built on Vedic ideas and introduced new ones, such as rebirth (being born again and again) and karma (our actions and their results).

Vedanta. According to the school of thought called Vedanta, everything, human life, nature and the whole universe, is one divine essence called brahman (not to be confused with the god Brahma), sometimes simply called tat, 'That'. Two famous sayings express this: aham brahmasmi, 'I am brahman', and tat tvam asi, 'You are That'.

Atman. The Upanishads also speak of the atman or Self, the divine essence that lives in every being and is ultimately one with brahman. If the same essence is in everyone, then everything is connected and depends on everything else. That is why a well-known prayer, sarve bhavantu sukhinah, wishes that all beings be happy and free from disease and sorrow.

Stories that ask questions. Many Upanishad stories show the value of asking questions, whether by men, women or children:

Yoga. Early in the 1st millennium BCE, more schools grew out of the Vedas. One was Yoga, which developed methods to experience brahman in one's own consciousness, the state of being aware. Together, these Vedic schools of thought became the foundations of what we call Hinduism today.

A young prince who had everything leaves his palace one night to find out why people suffer. Years later he becomes one of the most influential teachers in human history. He is the Buddha.

Other schools of thought. Some schools of thought did not accept the authority of the Vedas and built their own systems. One of these is Buddhism.

Siddhartha's early life. About two and a half thousand years ago, Prince Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini, in today's Nepal. Scholars disagree about the exact year; we use about 560 BCE as an approximate date. He grew up in a sheltered palace life.

Four sights. At the age of 29, he rode through the city in a chariot and for the first time saw an old man, a sick man and a dead body. He also saw an ascetic, someone living a strict, simple life to reach a higher awareness, who looked calm and at peace. Moved by this, Siddhartha left the palace, his wife and his son, and travelled on foot as an ascetic, searching for the root cause of suffering.

Enlightenment. After meditating for many days under a pipal tree at Bodh Gaya, in today's Bihar, he attained enlightenment. He realised that avidya (ignorance) and attachment (a strong bond to people or things, through feelings or habit) are the source of suffering, and he worked out a method to remove them. He became known as the Buddha, 'the awakened one'.

His teachings.

• Ahimsa: usually translated as non-violence, but originally meaning 'not hurting' or 'not injuring' any living being.
• Inner discipline: purity comes not from bathing in sacred rivers but from living by truth and dharma.
• Self-conquest: conquering oneself is greater than conquering a thousand men in battle a thousand times.

The Sangha. The Buddha founded the Sangha, a community of bhikshus (monks) and, later, bhikshunis (nuns), who devoted themselves to practising and spreading his teachings. His influence spread across India and the whole of Asia and is still felt today.

Jataka tales. The Jataka tales tell stories of the Buddha's former births. In one, he is a monkey-king who stretches his own body across a stream as a bridge so his monkeys can escape soldiers, and dies of his injuries. The watching human king is so moved that he rethinks his own duty towards his people.

Some Jain monks sweep the ground gently before them as they walk, so as not to harm even tiny insects. This care for every living being comes from the teachings of Mahavira.

Mahavira's life. Jainism spread at about the same time as Buddhism, though its roots are said to be much older. Prince Vardhamana was born into a royal family in the early 6th century BCE, near Vaishali in today's Bihar. At 30, he left home in search of spiritual knowledge. After 12 years of strict ascetic practice, he reached supreme wisdom and became known as Mahavira, 'great hero'.

Jina, the conqueror. The word Jain comes from jina, 'conqueror'. This does not mean conquering lands or enemies, but conquering ignorance and attachment to reach enlightenment.

Three key teachings.

Jainism also stresses that all creatures, from humans to tiny invisible organisms, depend on each other. Scientists studying nature keep confirming this deep truth.

A second chance. A Jain story tells of Rohineya, a clever burglar who, by chance, overheard a few words of Mahavira's teaching. Those words later helped him see through a trap, and he was so moved that he confessed, returned what he had stolen, became a monk and turned to higher knowledge. The story teaches right thinking, right action, and that everyone deserves a second chance.

Spreading the teachings. Buddhist and Jain monks, and sometimes nuns, travelled far and wide. Some built monasteries; others lived in caves cut into rock. The caves at Ellora in Maharashtra, cut between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, include Hindu, Buddhist and Jain caves side by side.

Many choices. There were other schools too. The Charvaka or Lokayata school held that only the material world exists and there is no life after death. It did not become popular, but it shows people were free to choose their beliefs.

The common trunk. Vedic, Buddhist and Jain schools differed in important ways, yet they shared ideas such as dharma, karma, rebirth, the search for an end to suffering and ignorance, and values like ahimsa. These shared ideas are the trunk of our tree.

The Toda people of the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu believe that more than thirty peaks of their mountains are homes of gods and goddesses. The peaks are so sacred that they avoid even pointing at them with a finger.

Oral traditions. Many of India's cultural roots are recorded in texts. But India also has rich oral traditions, teachings and practices passed on through everyday life without written texts. (The Vedas themselves were oral for most of their history.) Among them are folk traditions, carried on by ordinary people, and tribal traditions, carried on by tribes.

What is a tribe? Anthropologists today usually describe a tribe as a group of families or clans who share a belief in common ancestors, a culture and a language, and who live as a close-knit community under a chief, without private property. Ancient India had no separate word for tribe: tribes were simply janas living in a particular environment such as forests or mountains. The Constitution uses 'tribes' and 'tribal communities' in English and janjati in Hindi.

How many? According to official figures for 2011, India had 705 tribes in most States, with a population of about 104 million (about 10.4 crore), more than the populations of Australia and the United Kingdom put together.

Old prejudice, new respect. In the 19th century, some anthropologists called tribes 'primitive'. Deeper study of their rich and complex cultures has led to such biased judgments being mostly dropped.

Giving and taking. Folk and tribal traditions and the major schools of thought have always exchanged deities, ideas, stories and rituals in both directions:

• By tradition, Jagannath, worshipped at Puri in Odisha, was originally a tribal deity; so were various forms of the mother goddess.
• Many tribes adopted Hindu deities long ago and have their own versions of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, from the northeast to Tamil Nadu.

Why so natural? Folk, tribal and Hindu belief systems share many ideas. In all three, mountains, rivers, trees, plants, animals and even some stones are sacred, because there is consciousness behind them. And despite many deities, many tribes also believe in a supreme being:

The sociologist André Béteille observed that tribal beliefs and Hinduism have influenced each other from the very beginning. The result has been mutual enrichment, which makes folk and tribal traditions true roots of Indian culture.