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The First Spring: Culture in the Golden Age of India - Part 2
Part Two of a brilliant study of ancient Indian civilization
For about a thousand years, from around the middle of the first millennium BCE, to around the middle of the first millennium CE, India was a prosperous and marvellously creative civilization. Cultural cross-fertilization and the stimulus of a Buddhist ethic, along with economic prosperity, had a liberating effect on the human spirit and on creativity. The season in India then turned spring, and culture blossomed luxuriantly. In Part Two of The First Spring (Culture in the Golden Age of India) Abraham Eraly unfolds a profoundly illuminating panorama, covering the sciences, philosophy, literature, the arts and religion, of an age that flowered luxuriantly before its inevitable decay.
For about a thousand years, from around the middle of the first millennium BCE, to around the middle of the first millennium CE, India was a prosperous and marvellously creative civilization. Cultural cross-fertilization and the stimulus of a Buddhist ethic, along with economic prosperity, had a liberating effect on the human spirit and on creativity. The season in India then turned spring, and culture blossomed luxuriantly. In Part Two of The First Spring (Culture in the Golden Age of India) Abraham Eraly unfolds a profoundly illuminating panorama, covering the sciences, philosophy, literature, the arts and religion, of an age that flowered luxuriantly before its inevitable decay.
- GenresHistoryIndiaNonfiction
467 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2014
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88 people want to read
About the author
Abraham Eraly
15 books86 followersAbraham Eraly is an Indian writer. He has written many acclaimed books on Indian history.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 20, 2023
First things first -> Phew and Yay ! Patting myself a little on the back for finally completing the 6-book series on pre-British history of India after 7 years of starting it :)
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Talking about the series, I found the author Abraham Eraly to be largely unbiased and putting facts before opinions. He was also bold enough when needed - while talking about Buddha and Mahavira, intolerance of Islam or the horrific Brahminism that became indistinguishable from Hinduism later - among many other things. The writing style had a certain literary quality to it, without being superfluous or pretentious.
It took him years of research and so one must conclude that he was passionate about the subject. But never did I find him forcing his opinion on the reader. A bit strange in these times of petty Pillais and Kanisettis.
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On the book itself, "The First Spring" was a study of classical India from 500 BCE to 1000 CE and the author split and released it in 2 volumes. This was Volume 2 but I strongly think that this book along with the political history in Volume 1 should have been published as Volume 1. Because many of the assertions made in Volume 1 seemed unfounded and were understood only on reading Volume 2.
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Highly recommended if you are interested in the history of India.
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Talking about the series, I found the author Abraham Eraly to be largely unbiased and putting facts before opinions. He was also bold enough when needed - while talking about Buddha and Mahavira, intolerance of Islam or the horrific Brahminism that became indistinguishable from Hinduism later - among many other things. The writing style had a certain literary quality to it, without being superfluous or pretentious.
It took him years of research and so one must conclude that he was passionate about the subject. But never did I find him forcing his opinion on the reader. A bit strange in these times of petty Pillais and Kanisettis.
----------------------------------------------------------------
On the book itself, "The First Spring" was a study of classical India from 500 BCE to 1000 CE and the author split and released it in 2 volumes. This was Volume 2 but I strongly think that this book along with the political history in Volume 1 should have been published as Volume 1. Because many of the assertions made in Volume 1 seemed unfounded and were understood only on reading Volume 2.
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Highly recommended if you are interested in the history of India.
November 21, 2016
This book on culture in the golden age of India is an eminent continuation to its first volume in ‘The First Spring’ series on life in the era. Introduction to the series and the author may be seen in the review of the first volume which can be read here and not repeated in this post. This volume dwells on the sciences, philosophy, literature, arts and religion in the classical age of India, which is defined as the period from 500 BCE when the heterodox religions sprouted, to 500 CE, at the end of the Gupta dynasty. The time frame is rather a flexible one, as the author narrates details that are considerably later than this interval, but somehow culturally intertwined with it. The volume is noteworthy also for the encyclopedic nature of the content where the author has taken great pains to bring out lesser known ideas to the limelight. The treatise on Tantrism (both the Hindu and Buddhist types) is quite original in the amount of information made available, though overladen with open description of occult practices which include sexual acts that go against the established code of conduct on such matters. This volume is not as lively as the first, but the quantum of valuable information provided by it is quite impressive.
Unlike the first part of the work, this volume is more of a handbook than discourse and analysis. Throughout the text, the author bemoans the eclipse of creativity by the end of the Classical Period. This is attributed to the decline of Buddhism, which was said to be rationalistic, liberal and possessing urban ethos that was far more conducive to innovation and creativity than the fatalistic, pietistic, and rustic ethos of Puranic Hinduism which eventually replaced it. We encounter some inconsistencies in the argument on account of the lavish praise heaped on the heterodox religions. Eraly states that Hinduism was an inclusive religion which could accommodate the folk deities and rituals of the peninsular people in its capacious lap, which neither Buddhism nor Jainism could do. This goes against the grain of the argument that Aryanisation of the South took place under the zealous missionary activity of Buddhist and Jain monks that lasted nearly five centuries before Puranic Hinduism came along. So, without accommodating the local culture or at least reaching a working arrangement with them, how could Buddhism and Jainism stay ascendant for so long? The book does not offer a convincing solution to this question. A good discussion on Sankara’s philosophy is included, from which it may be deduced that Sankara actually helped to preserve many of the Buddhist concepts by integrating them into Advaita philosophy. What swept Buddhism out of India was the Hindu devotional Bhakti cults which were intellectually at the opposite end from Advaita.
The book presents a detailed description of the science, literature, philosophy and art of the Classical Period. Indians excelled in mathematics and astronomy, but lagged behind in physical sciences. One reason cited for this backwardness is that Indian intellectuals strived for identifying the ultimate principles behind any phenomenon, which meant broad theorizing and discouraged rigorous empirical investigation. The upper varnas which constituted the bulk of the intelligentsia scorned physical exertions of any kind in search of knowledge. This is evidenced by the low status attributed to physicians as they have to treat all castes and handle impure substances emitted from patients’ bodies. No great preceptor after Susrutha in the 4th century arose in Ayurveda. This branch of ancient Indian knowledge is given a prominent place in the book for which a long chapter is dedicated. It may surprise many followers of yoga that Patanjali’s Yogasutra, considered to be the ultimate reference for all yogic practices, pays very little attention to asanas and pranayama as these are thought to be aids of meditation which is the advanced form of yoga.
As mentioned in the review of the first volume of this book, what differentiates Eraly from others is the prominent place he allots to South India and its languages, culture, literature, arts and architecture. A keen narrative on the development of language explains the mechanism by which Sanskrit came to be in the lofty position it now enjoys. Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhist Pali was one of its dialects. Sanskrit had a renaissance in the Gupta age, since many of the rulers of this era were foreign in origin and they wanted to obtain legitimacy for their dynasty by placating Brahmins and encouraging Sanskrit scholars. Even Mahayana Buddhism took to Sanskrit as its own language of liturgy. However, with Bhakti movements in the early-Medieval period, Sanskrit turned into a dead language as the Bhakti saints encouraged vernacular languages by producing hymns which common people could understand. Even at its inception and zenith, Sanskrit was not the language of the people, but a literary language which was the preserve of the elite. This is in contrast to Tamil, South India’s oldest tongue. Sangam Age of the South coincided with the Classical period in the North. Though the word ‘Sangam’ itself is Sanskrit that might’ve denoted a Jain order, its literature is of the common people in their living language. Eraly states that this made them fresh and vigorous as compared to pretentious sophistication, hyperbolic literary conceits and stuffy pedantry of Sanskrit court literature.
The influence of Kalidasa on classical literature is uncontested and he is sometimes referred as the Indian Shakespeare, on account of the poems and dramas he has penned. This book analyses the possible influence of Greek drama on its Indian counterpart and discounts any possible imprint. It is true that Greek kings ruled over the north-western regions of the country and Greek influence is evident on other aspects of the culture. It is even possible that the stage curtain, which is called ‘yavanika’, owes its name to Ionia in Greece, but the two theatrical traditions are entirely unlike each other in ethos, structure and presentation. Aristotelian aesthetics of Greek drama that mostly handled tragedies was totally different from Indian theatre.
This book treats the definition of the Classical Age in a somewhat loose form. While it is generally agreed that the classical period extended only till 500 CE, the flowering of Indian architecture took place only around 1000 CE and thereafter, with magnificent temples built by the Cholas, Pallavas, Chandellas and Hoysalas. This is in contradiction with the author’s refrain that India went into a dark age with the downfall of Buddhism and rise of Puranic Hinduism after 500 CE and all forms of culture suffered a decline. To tide over this too apparent incongruity, the author treats that period as late-Classical when discussing architecture alone. This clearly shows the pitfalls of blanket classifications against which authors should always be on their guard. Eraly places Buddhism on a towering pedestal and assigns on it the reason behind the growth and development of Indian culture. Elsewhere, it is also stated that it was a religion of the elite, with no deep roots among the teeming masses with their own primitive systems of beliefs and rituals. It is precisely because of the elitism of Buddhism that it declined in the post-Classical period when Puranic Hinduism rose upon its innate strength to seamlessly absorb the numerous folk cults into its fold. As the author himself notes, Buddhism played no indispensable role in the lives of the common people, and people had no indispensable need for Buddhism. Worship of Shiva and Vishnu are the two pillars on which modern Hinduism rests, but there is a subtle but definite tilt to Shaivism everywhere you look in India. This book is silent on how this bias came about. It mainly bases its discourse on religious texts alone which is dominated by Vishnu worship and an unsuspecting reader may even be mistakenly led to believe that Vaishnavite temples outnumber those of Shiva.
The author hails from Kerala and has included many references to it and to South India in general. His assertion that Madhava, the preceptor of dvaita philosophy (dualism) who lived in the 13th century was influenced by Christianity is dubious. The sage’s ideas carry some clear signs of affinity to Christian concepts and Udupi, his birth place, was frequented by Syrian Christians from Kerala. However, this is not sufficient proof of any ideological indebtedness of Madhava. When we come to the modern period, the social reformation of Kerala is noted for the slogan, ‘One Caste, One Religion and One God for Mankind’ propounded by the social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru. Eraly includes a quote from Tirumular (also known as Sundaranar), a Shaivite mystic, in which an echo of the modern slogan is evident. Tirumular exhorted his disciples to keep in mind that there is only one caste and one god (onre kulamum oruvane devanum). Any possible influence is for the scholars to bring out.
This book is a fairly large one, even though it is only the second volume. When this book came out as a single tome, it must have been really huge. Many repetitions from the first part is visible in the text, which is written much in the mould of A L Basham’s ‘The Wonder That Was India’. The diction is generally hearty and interesting, but the very long narratives on religion and philosophy is somewhat boring. The book contains an extensive section on bibliography and an excellent index.
The book is highly recommended.
Unlike the first part of the work, this volume is more of a handbook than discourse and analysis. Throughout the text, the author bemoans the eclipse of creativity by the end of the Classical Period. This is attributed to the decline of Buddhism, which was said to be rationalistic, liberal and possessing urban ethos that was far more conducive to innovation and creativity than the fatalistic, pietistic, and rustic ethos of Puranic Hinduism which eventually replaced it. We encounter some inconsistencies in the argument on account of the lavish praise heaped on the heterodox religions. Eraly states that Hinduism was an inclusive religion which could accommodate the folk deities and rituals of the peninsular people in its capacious lap, which neither Buddhism nor Jainism could do. This goes against the grain of the argument that Aryanisation of the South took place under the zealous missionary activity of Buddhist and Jain monks that lasted nearly five centuries before Puranic Hinduism came along. So, without accommodating the local culture or at least reaching a working arrangement with them, how could Buddhism and Jainism stay ascendant for so long? The book does not offer a convincing solution to this question. A good discussion on Sankara’s philosophy is included, from which it may be deduced that Sankara actually helped to preserve many of the Buddhist concepts by integrating them into Advaita philosophy. What swept Buddhism out of India was the Hindu devotional Bhakti cults which were intellectually at the opposite end from Advaita.
The book presents a detailed description of the science, literature, philosophy and art of the Classical Period. Indians excelled in mathematics and astronomy, but lagged behind in physical sciences. One reason cited for this backwardness is that Indian intellectuals strived for identifying the ultimate principles behind any phenomenon, which meant broad theorizing and discouraged rigorous empirical investigation. The upper varnas which constituted the bulk of the intelligentsia scorned physical exertions of any kind in search of knowledge. This is evidenced by the low status attributed to physicians as they have to treat all castes and handle impure substances emitted from patients’ bodies. No great preceptor after Susrutha in the 4th century arose in Ayurveda. This branch of ancient Indian knowledge is given a prominent place in the book for which a long chapter is dedicated. It may surprise many followers of yoga that Patanjali’s Yogasutra, considered to be the ultimate reference for all yogic practices, pays very little attention to asanas and pranayama as these are thought to be aids of meditation which is the advanced form of yoga.
As mentioned in the review of the first volume of this book, what differentiates Eraly from others is the prominent place he allots to South India and its languages, culture, literature, arts and architecture. A keen narrative on the development of language explains the mechanism by which Sanskrit came to be in the lofty position it now enjoys. Prakrit was the language of the people and Buddhist Pali was one of its dialects. Sanskrit had a renaissance in the Gupta age, since many of the rulers of this era were foreign in origin and they wanted to obtain legitimacy for their dynasty by placating Brahmins and encouraging Sanskrit scholars. Even Mahayana Buddhism took to Sanskrit as its own language of liturgy. However, with Bhakti movements in the early-Medieval period, Sanskrit turned into a dead language as the Bhakti saints encouraged vernacular languages by producing hymns which common people could understand. Even at its inception and zenith, Sanskrit was not the language of the people, but a literary language which was the preserve of the elite. This is in contrast to Tamil, South India’s oldest tongue. Sangam Age of the South coincided with the Classical period in the North. Though the word ‘Sangam’ itself is Sanskrit that might’ve denoted a Jain order, its literature is of the common people in their living language. Eraly states that this made them fresh and vigorous as compared to pretentious sophistication, hyperbolic literary conceits and stuffy pedantry of Sanskrit court literature.
The influence of Kalidasa on classical literature is uncontested and he is sometimes referred as the Indian Shakespeare, on account of the poems and dramas he has penned. This book analyses the possible influence of Greek drama on its Indian counterpart and discounts any possible imprint. It is true that Greek kings ruled over the north-western regions of the country and Greek influence is evident on other aspects of the culture. It is even possible that the stage curtain, which is called ‘yavanika’, owes its name to Ionia in Greece, but the two theatrical traditions are entirely unlike each other in ethos, structure and presentation. Aristotelian aesthetics of Greek drama that mostly handled tragedies was totally different from Indian theatre.
This book treats the definition of the Classical Age in a somewhat loose form. While it is generally agreed that the classical period extended only till 500 CE, the flowering of Indian architecture took place only around 1000 CE and thereafter, with magnificent temples built by the Cholas, Pallavas, Chandellas and Hoysalas. This is in contradiction with the author’s refrain that India went into a dark age with the downfall of Buddhism and rise of Puranic Hinduism after 500 CE and all forms of culture suffered a decline. To tide over this too apparent incongruity, the author treats that period as late-Classical when discussing architecture alone. This clearly shows the pitfalls of blanket classifications against which authors should always be on their guard. Eraly places Buddhism on a towering pedestal and assigns on it the reason behind the growth and development of Indian culture. Elsewhere, it is also stated that it was a religion of the elite, with no deep roots among the teeming masses with their own primitive systems of beliefs and rituals. It is precisely because of the elitism of Buddhism that it declined in the post-Classical period when Puranic Hinduism rose upon its innate strength to seamlessly absorb the numerous folk cults into its fold. As the author himself notes, Buddhism played no indispensable role in the lives of the common people, and people had no indispensable need for Buddhism. Worship of Shiva and Vishnu are the two pillars on which modern Hinduism rests, but there is a subtle but definite tilt to Shaivism everywhere you look in India. This book is silent on how this bias came about. It mainly bases its discourse on religious texts alone which is dominated by Vishnu worship and an unsuspecting reader may even be mistakenly led to believe that Vaishnavite temples outnumber those of Shiva.
The author hails from Kerala and has included many references to it and to South India in general. His assertion that Madhava, the preceptor of dvaita philosophy (dualism) who lived in the 13th century was influenced by Christianity is dubious. The sage’s ideas carry some clear signs of affinity to Christian concepts and Udupi, his birth place, was frequented by Syrian Christians from Kerala. However, this is not sufficient proof of any ideological indebtedness of Madhava. When we come to the modern period, the social reformation of Kerala is noted for the slogan, ‘One Caste, One Religion and One God for Mankind’ propounded by the social reformer, Sree Narayana Guru. Eraly includes a quote from Tirumular (also known as Sundaranar), a Shaivite mystic, in which an echo of the modern slogan is evident. Tirumular exhorted his disciples to keep in mind that there is only one caste and one god (onre kulamum oruvane devanum). Any possible influence is for the scholars to bring out.
This book is a fairly large one, even though it is only the second volume. When this book came out as a single tome, it must have been really huge. Many repetitions from the first part is visible in the text, which is written much in the mould of A L Basham’s ‘The Wonder That Was India’. The diction is generally hearty and interesting, but the very long narratives on religion and philosophy is somewhat boring. The book contains an extensive section on bibliography and an excellent index.
The book is highly recommended.
June 19, 2025
‘One should not
grieve for the past, nor be distressed about the future; the wise occupy
themselves with the things of the present,’
This ancient Indian proverb is the perfect exegesis for my feelings upon finishing this scintillating read. Not only because this book has come to a close but because it is also the last of the books by Abraham Eraly for me.
'India,' comments modern historian Basham, 'was perhaps the happiest and most civilized region of the world.'
For well over a thousand years, from around the middle of the first millennium BCE to around the middle of the first millennium CE, India was an open, prosperous, progressive and vibrantly creative civilization. Indians of that age, especially the affluent urbanites in the numerous thriving towns of India, led cultured, fragrant lives characterized by a joie de vivre that would never again be known in the Indian subcontinent, except among the minuscule political elite in Mughal times, a thousand years later.
Juxtaposed to part 1, the cynosure of the sequel is in fact on the culture of the golden age of India, covering a period of roughly fourth century bc to the eighth century ce covering the entire gamut of life during the effervescence of the golden age that India experienced.
Abraham manages to succinctly cover every major point of ancient wealth, philosophy, polity, art, literature, sciences and religion while providing context of the mores they existed in as well as the aberrant that would eventually lead to the regression of subcontinent history.
'The Sanskrit language ... is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either' This was the view of the late-eighteenth-century pioneering British Indologist William Jones. This quote also perfectly describes the cogent writing style and skill of Abraham Eraly, his British era colonial education gallantly shines through, whether it is to describe the linguistic differences between Sanskrit and its sibling language Prakrit, explaining the Indian invention of modern mathematics, or to explain the origin of the tantric Buddhism sect. His succinct writing style is the antithesis of much of the work we find on Indian history, which is of a most abstruse and orgiastic nature. The pedagogy in this book is second to none.
Abrahams wish as an Indian professor to create adequate material to both be read leisurely and be used as educational tools is fulfilled. Filled with dates, incidental data and quotes by many others this book contains all one needs - whether one is an erudite or recondite. This book - alongside Abraham’s other books on subcontinent history - collate to become perhaps the most ineffable corpus of literature ever written on the region. Therefore this book is more than deserving of my imprimatur.
With all being said, my only wish for this book, as well as the others in the collection, would be the addition of illustrations. Many kingdoms such as the kushanas, cholas and Palas of Bengal are repeatedly mentioned as well as artistic and architectural sites such as Khajuraho kissing sculpture, virupaksha temple, sun temple, ajanta boddhisatva painting, Jain temple on Mount Abu and so on. Thus illustrations would provide much value, especially as this book is didactic in nature.
grieve for the past, nor be distressed about the future; the wise occupy
themselves with the things of the present,’
This ancient Indian proverb is the perfect exegesis for my feelings upon finishing this scintillating read. Not only because this book has come to a close but because it is also the last of the books by Abraham Eraly for me.
'India,' comments modern historian Basham, 'was perhaps the happiest and most civilized region of the world.'
For well over a thousand years, from around the middle of the first millennium BCE to around the middle of the first millennium CE, India was an open, prosperous, progressive and vibrantly creative civilization. Indians of that age, especially the affluent urbanites in the numerous thriving towns of India, led cultured, fragrant lives characterized by a joie de vivre that would never again be known in the Indian subcontinent, except among the minuscule political elite in Mughal times, a thousand years later.
Juxtaposed to part 1, the cynosure of the sequel is in fact on the culture of the golden age of India, covering a period of roughly fourth century bc to the eighth century ce covering the entire gamut of life during the effervescence of the golden age that India experienced.
Abraham manages to succinctly cover every major point of ancient wealth, philosophy, polity, art, literature, sciences and religion while providing context of the mores they existed in as well as the aberrant that would eventually lead to the regression of subcontinent history.
'The Sanskrit language ... is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than Greek, more copious than Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either' This was the view of the late-eighteenth-century pioneering British Indologist William Jones. This quote also perfectly describes the cogent writing style and skill of Abraham Eraly, his British era colonial education gallantly shines through, whether it is to describe the linguistic differences between Sanskrit and its sibling language Prakrit, explaining the Indian invention of modern mathematics, or to explain the origin of the tantric Buddhism sect. His succinct writing style is the antithesis of much of the work we find on Indian history, which is of a most abstruse and orgiastic nature. The pedagogy in this book is second to none.
Abrahams wish as an Indian professor to create adequate material to both be read leisurely and be used as educational tools is fulfilled. Filled with dates, incidental data and quotes by many others this book contains all one needs - whether one is an erudite or recondite. This book - alongside Abraham’s other books on subcontinent history - collate to become perhaps the most ineffable corpus of literature ever written on the region. Therefore this book is more than deserving of my imprimatur.
With all being said, my only wish for this book, as well as the others in the collection, would be the addition of illustrations. Many kingdoms such as the kushanas, cholas and Palas of Bengal are repeatedly mentioned as well as artistic and architectural sites such as Khajuraho kissing sculpture, virupaksha temple, sun temple, ajanta boddhisatva painting, Jain temple on Mount Abu and so on. Thus illustrations would provide much value, especially as this book is didactic in nature.
December 9, 2019
The book gives an overview of the developments in sciences, philosophy, literature, arts and religion in the classic age of India which the author claims to be around 500BC to 500AD. highly recommended.
January 21, 2024
Highly detailed information on the subject.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews