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Rebuilding Buddhism the Theravada movement in
twentieth century Nepal Sarah Levine And David N.
Gellner. Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Sarah LeVine and David N. Gellner.
ISBN(s): 9780674019089, 0674019083
Edition: Kindle
File Details: PDF, 10.85 MB
Year: 2007
Language: english
1
2
3
THE THERAVADA MOVEMENT IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY NEPAL

SARAH LEVINE

DAVID N. GELLNER

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

4
5
6
7
To all our Nepali friends and colleagues who
cooperated
so willingly and have waited so patiently

8
9
Preface ix

1Introduction: The Origins of Modernist Buddhism 1

2Theravada Missionaries in an Autocratic State 24

3Creating a Tradition 56

4Charisma and Education: Dhammawati and the Nuns' Order after 1963 76

5The Changing Buddhist Laity 99

6Organizing and Educating the Monastic Community 130

7Raising the Status of Nuns: The Controversy over Bhikkhuni Ordination 171

8Winds of Change: Meditation and Social Activism 207

9Other Buddhist Revival Movements: Tibetan "Mahayana" and Newar "Vajrayana" 241

10Conclusion: Nepal's Theravadins in the Twenty-First Century 268

Appendix 1: Dramatis Personae: Some Prominent Personalities in the Theravada Movement 293

Appendix 2: Complete List of Theravada Viharas in Nepal 297

Glossary 301

Notes 307

References 343

Index 365

10
11
This book grew out of David N. Gellner's longstanding interest in Buddhism among the Newars and
Sarah LeVine's in female asceticism. Much of the field research was done by LeVine in 1997-98, with
e-mail support from Gellner, when she was at the same time carrying out an unrelated study in the
Kathmandu Valley. The authors had several weeks together in the field in the summer of 1998, the
winter of 2000, and the spring of 2002, and each made three additional solo field trips, the last in the
late winter (I.eVine) and spring (Gellner) of 2004. Gellner's doctoral research (1982-84) had been
carried out entirely with Newars, and so he is more comfortable in their language, Nepal Bhasha.
LeVine's first research in Nepal (1990) had been done in Godavari, at the southern end of the
Kathmandu Valley, and so she used mainly Nepali. In addition, if the speaker was comfortable in it,
many interviews were carried out in English. In most cases, the language of the unattributed
quotations, all taken from our fieldnotes, can be assumed to he either Nepali or Nepal Bhasha.

The detailed ethnographic material in Chapters 3-8 was collected by LeVine, who spent many days
attending religious events, teaching English in Vishwa Shanti and I)harmakirti Viharas, and hanging
out at these and other viharas and in the homes of devotees. This was supplemented by interviews
carried out by both authors, and by written sources. Both authors attended the International Buddhist
Meditation Centre (IBMC) in Shankhamul whenever they were in Nepal, and LeVine took a vipassana
meditation course at 1)harmashringha. An important additional source of information was provided
by 1.eVine's travels to Bodh Gaya, Burma, Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, all places where
Nepali Theravadins are to be found and from which, as discussed below, many of the important
influences on Buddhist revivalism in the Kathmandu Valley have come. Adams (1996: 125) has
stressed the transnational nature of Sherpa Buddhism, and the same applies, though with less Western
input, to Theravada Buddhism among the Newars.

It would he have been impossible to disguise the more prominent figures in the Buddhist revival
movement. However, in order to protect their privacy to some degree, most of our informants have
been given pseudonyms. We discussed this course with them and they nearly all agreed to the
procedure, even though it arose from our concerns, not theirs.

In Chapter 10, we compare the revival of monasticism in the Kathmandu Valley that we describe
with the introduction of celibate monasteries among the Sherpas, which has been described in detail
by Sherry Ortner (1989a). Our motivations for carrying out the present study were not totally
dissimilar to Ortner's for examining social and religious change. In order to establish herself as an
anthropologist, Ortner, as she herself has related, began by studying the Sherpas in the 1970s in as
"male" and as "traditionally anthropological" a way as she could, focusing on Sherpa religion, ritual,
and social interaction and leaving out of focus, as mere background material, consideration of
historical trends, of the wider politico-economic context, of gender, and of childhood. She also
studiedly ignored, in her first fieldwork, the Sherpas' involvement in mountain climbing and even in
tourism, faults which she has attempted to overcome in later work. We too have sought to make up for
the lacunae or biases of previous work, to produce a historically informed account of Buddhism
among the Newars as it is being made and remade, one that does justice to the viewpoints of those

12
involved, whether "big" people or "small" people, male or female, monastic or lay. There is one
obvious difference between us and Ortner, however: Ortner set out to compose a work that would
both argue the case for "practice theory" and simultaneously exemplify it, whereas, at least in this
monograph, we have no such theoretical ambitions. We hope that our ethnography does indeed
exemplify what are supposed to be the virtues of "practice theory"-the ability to combine in one
analysis both impersonal "objective" forces and the cultural forms, ideas, and subjectivities of the
people written about, without reducing either side to the other. Ortner includes only as much
ethnography and history as is compatible with still making her theoretical case, whereas we seek to
provide as rich and as many-sided an ethnography and ethnographic history of this local form of
Buddhism modernism as possible, in the belief that contributing to the ethnographic record is a good
in itself, and because others may later wish to use our material and ask questions of it that we did not
think to ask ourselves.

There is one fairly unusual feature of this ethnography, namely, that is produced by two people, one
female, one male, who spent most of their time working apart. At the same time, we have of course
frequently worked together on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in Nepal. Teamwork in
anthropology usually leads to a division of labor, so that the written products are different parts of a
book or entirely different books. In our case, two different ethnographers, with different skills and
different ways of relating to people, have produced a genuinely shared effort. We think that this has
resulted in a more rounded and richer ethnography than either of us could have achieved on our own,
and we are surprised that this has not been attempted more often-though given the very personal
nature of ethnographic fieldwork and ethnographic writing, as well as the highly individualistic
character of most anthropologists, perhaps we should not be surprised. In any case, this book is, we
believe, better for our collaboration; and we are still talking to each other.

Some of the more common technical terms used throughout the book, such as "nirvana," "dharma,"
and "vihara," appear in roman type without diacritics and in general we have kept diacritics in the
main text to a minimum. Fuller explanations and full diacritics are given in the glossary. Our usage of
the terms "Nepalese" and "Nepali" is a compromise between English euphony and emerging Nepali
usage. The language and the people are referred to as "Nepali," but in more abstract contexts,
"Nepalese" is used as the appropriate adjective.

In the writing of this book we have both accumulated many debts. The first is to the people it is
about. They will know how long it has taken, and some may have given up waiting for it altogether.
They have all cooperated and helped us well beyond the call of politeness or friendship. We cannot
mention everyone by name, but we must record our grateful thanks to Vinaya 1)hakhwa, Suman Kamal
Tuladhar, Nirmal Man Tuladhar, the late Gyan Jyoti Kansakar, Bhikshu Gyanapurnika, Dhammawati
Guruma, Chameli Guruma, Chini Guruma, Punam Rana, Mallika Shakya, Father John Locke S. J.,
Father Gregory Sharkey S. J., Ratna Man Shakya, Sachit and Deepa Pokharel, Ramendra and Mridula
Sharma, Sudhindra Sharma, Subarna Man Tuladhar, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Charles Hallisey, Jim
Benson, and Will Tuladhar-Douglas (who introduced us in Oxford in October 1996). Many others
involved in Buddhism in Nepal have given us their time and searched for, or provided, written
materials for us (for the latter we thank the Ven. Bodhigyan, Sharad Kasa, Mrigendra Karki, Kesar
Lall, Chiara Letizia, Mallika Shakya, Dharma Man Newa, and Subarna Man Tuladhar). We would
13
both like to thank our families who have put up with our absences, in Nepal while doing the research
and in the study while writing it up.

Research trips to Kathmandu were funded for Gellner by the British Academy and the International
Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, and for LeVine by the W. T. Grant Foundation and the Spencer
Foundation of Chicago. Gellner would also like to record his deep gratitude to the Leverhulme Trust:
but for the award of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from October 2002 it is likely that the
process of drafting the book would have been put off for many years more. Final corrections and
revisions to the manuscript were done while he was a visiting professor at, and enjoying the
magnificent facilities of, the Research Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia
and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan (2003-2004).

Many people have read through part or all of the manuscript and helped to save us from errors,
ambiguities, and convoluted sentences: Bhikshu Sugandha (Anil Sakya), Bhikshu Vipassi, Bhikshu
Sujan, Steven Collins, Lance Cousins, Richard Gombrich, Todd Lewis, Kitsiri Malalgoda, K. P.
Malla, Min Bahadur Shakya, Suharna Man Tuladhar, D. P. Martinez, Kim Gutschow, Peter Skilling,
and Leonard van der Kuijp as well as two anonymous reviewers. For errors that remain, as well as
for the emphases and interpretations offered, we take full responsibility. We would be grateful to have
any factual errors brought to our attention. We have written about personal matters which could well
be controversial, and so we have tried to protect some of those we write about with pseudonyms. It
is, therefore, no mere formality if we insist that none of those who helped us, or read our manuscript,
should be held responsible for the biases of our interests or our observations.

When we first conceived this study in 1997, the Maoists' "People's War" had only just been
launched and was confined to a few hill areas in Nepal, mostly far from Kathmandu. For some years
it remained small in scale and limited in its impact. By the time we were preparing the manuscript for
publication in 2004, the Maoist insurgency had grown to become overwhelmingly the most serious
problem affecting the country with an impact-often tragic-on the lives of all Nepalis. The civil war
and the mass disruption that have resulted do not play a large part in the account that follows, but they
must be understood as the background to the years since 2001. There is a burgeoning literature on the
Maoist issue; for an introduction, see Thapa and Sijapati (2004).

14
Nepal and the Kathmandu Valley

15
16
17
Buddhism is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, example of a world religion. Nowadays, it might
be called a transnational religious movement. The Buddha sent his followers off in all directions to
preach his doctrine "for the good of the world." The Emperor Asoka, who reigned over most of South
Asia in the mid third century BCE, was evidently a convinced Buddhist even though he protected all
religions within his diverse and multilingual realm. He sent or encouraged missionaries to spread
Buddhism well beyond his own kingdom. Later, in order to transmit their voluminous scriptures
across major cultural boundaries, Buddhist monks were involved in two gigantic and heroic efforts of
translation from Sanskrit and Prakrit, first into Chinese (between the second and eleventh centuries of
the common era) and later into Tibetan (between the seventh and fourteenth centuries); in both cases
they had to evolve whole new vocabularies in order to do so. Ideas and practices were carried
enormous distances in this way so that even today, despite the fact that until the modern period there
had been almost no direct contact between the countries involved, the mantras used in Tantric
Buddhism in Japan are recognizably similar to those still in use in Tibet and Nepal, and the script in
which they are inscribed on Japanese funerary markers and sacred sites is easily recognizable as a
variant of scripts still found in Nepal. Furthermore-a fact of great significance for the story in this
hook-there are still monks and nuns in China and Japan who observe an ancient monastic code that
closely resembles the codes followed in the Theravada Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia, even
though the two traditions diverged from each other and have had little contact for over a thousand
years.

Once these different forms of Buddhism were transmitted to the different countries of Asia, the
monks and priests who carried them embarked on a process of adaptation to their local cultural
environments. New waves of proselytization and revitalization occurred, but principally within,
rather than between, different cultural and linguistic regions.' All this was to change with the advent
of the modern world, which brought with it the rise of Western scholarship on Buddhism, rising levels
of Western-style education in Asia, and easier, and intensified, contact between Buddhists from
different Asian countries. In 1893, there occurred a key event in this process-one that made the West
aware of Asian religions as never before and simultaneously helped to launch the process of the
modernization of Asian religions, which was a precondition for Hindus or Buddhists to become
organized internationally. A "World Parliament of Religions" was held in Chicago, as one of twenty
congresses-on subjects as diverse as agriculture, women's progress, engineering, and music-held to
celebrate four hundred years since the arrival of Columbus in the Americas (Seager 1995).

The World Parliament of Religions has been interpreted as marking the culmination of a century in
which the West gradually came to replace condemnation and ignorance with sympathetic
understanding in relation to Asian religions (Jackson 1981). At the same time, the Parliament was a
key event in the transformation of those very Asian religions, because it launched the careers of two
of the most important modernizers, Swami Vivekananda and Anagarika Dharmapala. Vivekananda
18
was instrumental in the creation of a modernized Hinduism in Bengal. Dharmapala (1864-1933), who
was born as Don David Hewawitarana into a newly wealthy Sinhalese Buddhist family and educated
at Christian mission schools, was arguably even more important in influencing the development of
Buddhism in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.2

When Dharmapala addressed the Chicago Parliament, the St. Louis Observer reported that,

with his black curly locks thrown back from his broad brow, his keen, clear eyes fixed upon the
audience, his long brown fingers emphasizing the utterances in his vibrant voice, he looked the
very image of a propagandist, and one trembled to know that such a figure stood at the head of
the movement to consolidate all the disciples of Buddha and to spread ,the light of Asia'
throughout the civilized world.'

Dharmapala argued that the Buddha had been twenty-five hundred years ahead of his time. The
"fundamental principles of evolution and monism," which were, he claimed, coming to be accepted
"by the most thoughtful men of the day," were anticipated by the Buddha himself:

Twenty-five centuries ago India witnessed an intellectual and religious revolution which
culminated in the overthrow of monotheism, priestly selfishness, and the establishment of a
synthetic religion, a system of life and thought which was appropriately called Dhamma-
Philosophical Religion. All that was good was collected from every source and embodied
therein, and all that was bad discarded ... Speculation in the domain of false philosophy and
theology ceased, and active altruism reigned supreme. (Dharmapala 1893: 863)

Dharmapala stressed that Buddhism was a religion of brotherhood and equality, and that it was
scientific, in that nothing was to be accepted on faith (ibid.: 878).

Dharmapala and His Achievements

Sri Lanka, the land of Dharmapala's birth, is the Theravada Buddhist country with the longest history
of colonialism. Beginning in the early sixteenth century, its coastal regions had been colonized first by
the Portuguese, then by the Dutch, and lastly by the British. Colonization had brought Christian
missionaries, initially Roman Catholics and later, with the Dutch and the British, Protestants. By the
mid-nineteenth century not only was the Sinhala lowland elite thoroughly anglicized in language and
education, but many had also converted to Christianity. Since the Chola invasions of the eleventh
century, Buddhism in Sri Lanka had gone through many sequences of decline followed by renewal
spearheaded by Thai, Mon, Arkanese, or Burmese monks whom Sinhalese kings, as protectors and
purifiers of the Sangha, had periodically called in to reestablish higher ordination and raise standards
of monastic conduct (Blackburn 2003). With the final defeat of the king of Kandy in 1815, however,
Sinhala Buddhism lost its principal patron, protector, purifier, and mediator. Although the monarch's
religious responsibilities shifted to the colonial government, in Sri Lanka, as in the direct-rule areas
of India, the British accepted them reluctantly (Appadurai 1981). Before too long, the colonial
government in Sri Lanka, under pressure from missionaries, began looking for a way to surrender its
religious authority. It stopped enforcing the authority of monastery chiefs and could no longer be

19
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 HINDU PERIOD arrived in China by sea ; he called himself a
native of T'ien-chu (India). In Col. Yule's Cathay and the IVay
Thither we have a record of the various instances of intercourse
between China and India from the earliest times downwards, both
by sea and land. As regards the intercourse with Japan, which also
developed during this period, we have a few conclusive facts and
evidences to adduce. Japanese tradition records the names of Indian
evangelists who visited Japan to propagate the Buddhistic faith.
Thus Bodhidharma, of South India, after working in China, came to
Japan and had an interview with Prince Shotoku (a.d. 573-621).
Subkakara was another Indian, a native of Central India, who, while
working in China (716-735), privately visited Japan and left at the
Kumedera Temple, in the province of Yamato, a book of the
Mahdvairochanabhisambodhi Sutra, consisting of seven books, the
fundamental doctrines of Buddhistic Tantrism.^ The visit of the
Indian missionary, Bodhisena, to Japan in ad. 736 is a historical fact.
Bodhisena had originally gone to China to see a Chinese sage, Manju
S'ri, and while staying in a temple there came in contact with a
Japanese envoy to the Celestial court, and was ^ Rev. Daito Shimaji
on " India and Japan in Ancient Times," in the Journal of the Indo-
Japanese Association, January, 1910.
 INDIAN SHIPPING persuaded by the latter to visit Japan.
He settled in Japan, and taught Sanskrit to Japanese priests. He was
most bountifully provided by the Imperial Court, and most devotedly
loved by the populace. But India contributed not only to the religion
of Japan but also to her industry. The official annals of Japan record
how eleven centuries ago cotton was introduced into Japan by two
Indians. The eighth volume of the Nihon-Ko-Ki records how in July,
799, a foreigner was washed ashore in a little boat somewhere on
the southern coast of Mikwa Province in Japan. He confessed himself
to be a man from " Ten-jiku," as India was then called in Japan.
Among his effects was found something like grass-seeds, which
proved to be no other than some seeds of the cotton-plant. Again, it
is written in the 199th chapter of the Ruijukokushi (another official
record) that a man from Kuen-lum was cast up on Japanese shores
in April, 800, and that the cotton-seeds he had brought with him
were sown in the provinces of Kii, Awaji, Sanuki, Jyo, Tosa, and
Kyushu. These two records are enough to convince us that cotton
was introduced into Japan through the Indians who were
unfortunately carried over to that country by the " black current." ^
•sjowards the end of the loth and the early part ^ Dr. Taka-Kusu on
" What Japan Owes to India " in the Journal of the Indo-Japanese
Association, January, 1910.
 HINDU PERIOD of the nth century, Southern India
witnessed a remarkable outburst of naval activity under the strong
government of a succession of Chola kings. The first of this line of
rulers was Raja-raja the Great, who ascended the throne in a.d. 985.
He began his career of conquest by the destruction of the Chera
fleet in the roads of Kandalur (probably on the west coast), and
passed from victory to victory till, in the course of a busy reign of
twenty-seven years, he made himself beyond dispute the Lord
Paramount of Southern India, ruling a realm which included the
whole of the Madras Presidency and a large part of Mysore, together
with Kalingam, which he conquered in the sixteenth year of his
reign. Ceylon (Ham) also was added to his empire in the twentieth
year, for he built up a powerful navy, and his operations were not
confined merely to the land. Raja-raja Chola (a.d. 984-1013) was
succeeded by his son Rajendra Choladeva I., under whose long and
brilliant rule from A.D. 1013 to 1044 the power of the Cholas
reached its high-water mark and their empire its widest extent. In
inscriptions dated in the twelfth year of his reign (a.d. 1025) he is
said to have conquered Orissa, Gujarat, Behar, and Bengal, and
reached the banks of the Ganges, for which he assumed the title of
Gangaikonda-chola (the Chola who seized the Ganges). In the
inscriptions of his thirteenth year detailing his conquests we find 175
 INDIAN SHIPPING that he also conquered " the whole
kingdom of Ham (Ceylon) in the raging ocean girt by the crystal
waves of the sea," as well as " countless old islands (about 12,000 in
number) in the midst of the ocean in which conches resound," which
were probably the Laccadives and Maldives. In the same inscription
it is also recorded that he achieved a great naval victory over "
Sangrama Vijayottunga Varman, the King of Kadaram, whom he
caught by dispatching (his army in) many ships across the stormy
sea and his huge elephants furious as the roaring sea." This " stormy
sea " was no doubt the Bay of Bengal if Kadaram is identified with
the ancient kingdom of Prome or Pegu, also known as Tharekhettra.
The inscription also describes Kadaram as being "difficult to attack,
being defended by the sea." All this, therefore, indicates that the
naval power of the Cholas was considerably developed, making itself
felt even on the opposite coast of the Bay of Bengal. In addition to
Kadaram there were also taken on the same coast the flourishing
seaports of Takkolam (the Takola of Ptolemy, where, according to
the Indian Antiquary, vol. xxi., p. 383, " cables, ropes, and other
vestiges of sea-going vessels are still frequently dug up ") and
Matama or Martaban. Then followed the annexation of the whole of
the kingdom, which was named S'rl Vishaya and Nakkavaram or the
Nicobar and Andaman Islands. These exploits are 176
 HINDU PERIOD thus referred to in the Tamil poem ICalinga
Huparani : " The war-elephants of the Chola drank water of the
Ganges at Mannai : and Kadaram, where the roaring crystal waves
washed the sand mixed with red gold, was annexed " (canto viii.,
stanza 25).^ The naval activity of the Chola emperors was not,
however, confined within the limits of the Bay of Bengal. They
appear to have carried on their intercourse with countries of the
farther East as far as China. In the Smigshih, a. Chinese work, the
names of the two Chola kings are mentioned who sent embassies
with tribute to China, viz. : in A.D. 1033, Shih-li-lo-ch'a-yin-to-lo-chu-
lo, i.e. S'ri Raja Indra Chola; and again in a.d. 1077, Ti-waka-lo,
which may stand for the Chola king Kulotunga (a.d. 1 077- 1 1 18).
The last embassy consisted of 72 men ; it was probably, like most of
the missions to the coast of China, nothing better than a trading
expedition on joint account, the 72 ambassadors being the
shareholders or their supercargoes.^ ^ The authorities consulted for
the Chola history are V, Kanakasabhai's articles on " Raja-Raja
Chola," " The Conquest of Bengal and Burma by the Tamils," and S.
Krishnaswami Aiyangar's article on " The Chola Ascendancy in
Southern India," in the Madras Review for 1902, vol. viii. 2 J.R.A.S.,
1896, pp. 490 ff. 177 N
 INDIAN SHIPPING CHAPTER X. Retrospect. We have now
set forth at some length the available evidences bearing on the
history of the shipping, sea-borne trade, and maritime activity of
India from the earliest times down to the period of the Musalman
conquests in Northern India. We have considered the kind of
maritime activity and commerce which India had in the long and
ancient period before the Mauryan in the light of the evidences from
both literary works and archaeological finds, and are quite prepared
for the remarkable outburst of naval activity and growth of foreign
intercourse which has been established beyond doubt or dispute to
be the characteristic of the Mauryan period. We have next seen how
the impetus given to the development of India's international life
under the Mauryan Empire in the days of Chandra Gupta and Asoka
survived that empire itself and continued to gain in force and volume
amid the vicissitudes of her domestic politics. Dynasty after dynasty
succeeded to the position of paramount power in the land, but the
course of commerce ran smooth through all these changes. The
opening centuries of the Christian era, which saw the political unity
of India divided by the Kushans 178
 HINDU PERIOD of the north and the Andhras of the south,
with the Vindhyas as their mutual boundary, were also, as we have
seen, the period of a remarkable growth of foreign commerce,
especially with Rome, that was shared equally by the north and the
south. This is shown, on the one hand, unmistakably by the books of
Roman writers with their remarkably accurate details regarding
Indian exports and imports, ports, and harbours, and, on the other
hand, by the unimpeachable testimony of many finds of Roman
coins both in Northern and Southern India. A consideration of the
kind of things which India sent abroad in exchange for the things
she imported and a glance at the list of Indian exports and imports,
such as that given in that most interesting work on Oriental
commerce, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, will reveal certain
peculiar features regarding the economical system of ancient India,
to which has been traced the proverbial " wealth of Ind " by many
scholars. As remarked by Major J. B. Keith, in a recent article in the
Asiatic Quarterly Review (July, 19 lo), "the old prosperity of India
was based on the sound principle, which is, that after clothing and
feeding your own people, then of your surplus abundance give to
the stranger." For it will appear that the chief items of Indian export
were the "renowned art industrial fabrics, and exports were not
multi179 N 2
 INDIAN SHIPPING plied on the reprehensible practice of
depleting a country of its food-stufifs." The result was the
development of an external trade to which we owe, on the one
hand, the great cities like Baalbek and Palmyra in the desert, and, on
the other hand, " those great monuments of art which India was
enabled to erect after clothing and feeding her own people." And of
the many satrapies of Darius India was also, as we have seen, the
only one which could afford to pay her tribute in gold to him. Finally,
we should not miss the point of Pliny's famous complaint about
allowing India to find a market for her superfluous manufactured
luxuries in Rome and thereby suck out her wealth and drain her of
gold. It may also be noted in passing that it was her wonderful
achievements in applied chemistry more than her skill in handicraft
which enabled India to command for more than a thousand years
(from Pliny to Tavernier) the markets of the East as well as the West,
and secured to her an easy and universally recognized pre-eminence
among the nations of the world in exports and manufactures. Some
of the Indian discoveries in chemical arts and manufactures are
indicated as early as the 6th century a.d. by Varahamihira in the
Vrihat'Sanhitd. Thus he mentions several preparations of cements or
powders called Vajralepa, "cements strong as the thunderbolt," for 1
80
 HINDU PERIOD which there was ample use in the temple
architecture of the times, whose remains still testify to the
adamantine strength of these metal or rock cements. Varahamihira
also alludes to the experts in machinery and the professional experts
in the composition of dyes and cosmetics, and even artificial
imitations of natural flower-scents which bulked so largely in the
Indian exports to Rome. Broadly speaking, there were three great
discoveries in applied chemistry to which India owed her capture of
the world markets, viz. (i) the preparation of fast dyes for textile
fabrics by the treatment of natural dyes like manjishtha with alum
and other chemicals ; (2) the extraction of the principle of indigotin
from the indigo plant by a process " which, however crude, is
essentially an anticipation of modern chemical methods " ; and (3)
the tempering of steel " in a manner worthy of advanced metallurgy,
a process to which the mediaeval world owed its Damascus swords."
^ Besides the Roman trade, and the trade with the West generally,
there was also developed along with it a trade with the East. The
West alone could not absorb the entire maritime activity of India,
which found another vent in a regular traffic in the Eastern waters
between Bengal and Ceylon, Kalinga, ^ Brajendranath Seal, M.A.,
Ph.D., in his learned thesis on "The Chemical Theories of the Ancient
Hindus." 181
 INDIAN SHIPPING and Suvarnabhumi, and a complete
navigation, in fact, of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, This
Eastern maritime enterprise reached its climax in the age of the
Gupta emperors, when India once more, as in the days of Chandra
Gupta and Asoka, asserted herself as a dominant factor in Asiatic
politics, and even showed symptoms of a colonizing activity that
culminated in the civilization of Java, Sumatra, and Cambodia, and
laid the foundation of a Greater India. Towards the later days of the
Gupta Empire, Indian maritime activity in the Eastern waters had a
vastly extended field, embracing within its sphere not only Farther
India and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, but also China, with
which a regular and ceaseless traffic by way of the sea was
established and long continued. Lastly, we find the sphere of this
Eastern naval activity widening still further during the days of
Harshavardhana and Pulakeshi, the Chalukyas and the Cholas, till
Japan in the farthest East is brought within the range of Indian
influence, and becomes the objective of Indian missionary and
colonizing activity. 182
BOOK II. MAHOMEDAN PERIOD.
 BOOK II.— MAHOMEDAN PERIOD. CHAPTER I. The Pre-
Mogul Period. We shall now briefly narrate the history of Indian
maritime enterprise after the advent and conquests of the
Musalmans. We begin first with the history of Sindh, and particularly
of its Arab conquests, which furnishes many instances of Indian
naval activity and enterprise. The immediate cause of the Arab
conquests was the exaction of vengeance for the plunder, by the
Meds and other pirates of Debal and the Indus mouths, of eight
vessels, which the ruler of Ceylon had dispatched, fitted with
presents, pilgrims, Mahometan orphans, and Abyssinian slaves, to
secure the good -will of Hajjaj and the Khalifa in the 8th century
(a.d. 712). It will be remembered that these Indian pirates had been
carrying on their activities from very early times. They inspired with
alarm the Persian ^ Al-Biladuri m Elliot, vol. i., p. ii8 ; also Appendix,
p. 429. 185
 INDIAN SHIPPING monarchy even in the days of its most
absolute power. According to Strabo and Arrian it was to protect
their cities against these piratical attacks that the Persians made the
Tigris entirely inaccessible for navigation, till Alexander, on his return
from India, to further commercial intercourse caused to be removed
the masses of stone by which the course of the stream was
obstructed. It has also been supposed that, inspired by the same
dread, and not from religious motives, the Persians built no city of
any note upon the sea-coast.^ Muhammad ibn Kasim, the Arab
conqueror of Sindh, arrived at Debal in ships carrying his men, arms,
and warlike machines, one of which, the manjanik, required 500
men to work it.^ He had also to construct bridges of boats in order
to effect his passage of the rivers of Sindh. ^ From the 9th century
we get notices of India by the Arabs. The commerce of the Arabs
was at its highest activity under the Caliphs of Bagdad, under whom
the Arabs conquered Egypt, closed Alexandria to Europeans, and
founded Bussora (a.d. 635) at the head of the Persian Gulf, rivalling
Alexandria as the centre of the Eastern trade. The voyages of
Sindabad the Sailor belong to the 9th century. ^ See Elliot, vol. i., p.
513. ^ Al-Biladuri m Elliot, vol. i., p. 120. 3 Chach-nama in Elliot, vol.
i., p. 167. 186
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD About A.D. 851 Suleiman, a
merchant of Bussorah, speaks of the Sea of Lar (which washes
Gujarat and Malabar), of Serendip or Ceylon, and the like. Masudi of
Bagdad (a.d. 890-956) visited India, and mentions nutmegs, cloves,
camphor, and sandalwood as Indian products.^ In the I ith century,
according to the Tabakat-iAkbari of Nizamuddin Ahmed, the 17th
expedition of Sultan Mahmud was directed against the Jats who had
molested his army on his return from Somnath. It was a brilliant
naval fight, and is thus described by the historian : — He led a large
force towards Multan, and when he arrived there he ordered 1,400
boats to be built, each of which was armed with three firm iron
spikes, projecting one from the prow and two from the sides, so that
everything which came in contact with them would infallibly be
destroyed. In each boat were 20 archers, with bows and arrows,
grenades, and naphtha, and in this way proceeded to attack the
Jats, who, having intelligence of the armament, sent their families
into the islands and prepared themselves for the conflict. They
launched, according to some, 4,000 boats, and according to others
8,000 boats, manned and armed, ready to engage the
Mahammadans. Both fleets met, and a desperate conflict ensued.
Every boat of the Jats that approached the Moslem fleet, when it
received the shock of the projecting spikes, was broken and
overturned. Thus, most of the Jats were drowned, and those who
were not so destroyed were put to the sword.'* Al-Biruni gives some
interesting details regarding the Indian maritime and commercial
activity of the nth century. He has referred to the pirates ^ Sir G.
Birdwood in his Report on the Old Records of the India Office. *
Elliot, vol. ii., p. 478. 187
 INDIAN SHIPPING infesting the western coast, named
Bawarij, who are so called because " they commit their depredations
in boats called Baira." ^ The coasts of Gujarat were the scene of
much commercial activity, from which sugar from Malwa, badru
(bam) and baladi were exported in ships to all countries and cities.^
Malabar also was in those days the " Key of Hind," whose
productions, such as rubies, aromatics, grasses, and pearls, were **
carried to Irak, Khurasan, Syria, Rum, and Europe." It has also a
great amount of entrepot trade, for " large ships, called in the
language of China * junks,' bring various sorts of choice
merchandise and cloths from China and Machin, and the countries of
Hind and Sindh."^ Wassaf (a.d. 1328) speaks of these junks as
sailing like mountains with the wings of the winds on the surface of
the water. In the 1 2th century, Al-Idrisi found Debal to be a " station
for the vessels of Sindh and other countries," whither came the "
vessels of China and ships laden with the productions of Uman."
Baruh (Broach) was a port for the vessels coming from China, as
also for those of Sindh.* He also mentions the cotton fabrics of
Coromandel, the ^ " Rashiuddin from Al-Biruni," in Sir H. Elliot's
History of India, vol. i., p. 65. 2 Ibid., p. 67. 3 Jlid,^ p, 69. * Ibid.,
pp. 77, 87, 188
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD pepper and cardamomes of Malabar,
and the lemons of Mansura on the " Mehran " (Indus). ^ Again, in
the 1 2th century, intercourse with the farther East is proved by the
fact that Gupta (a.d. 319-500) and White Huna (a.d. 500-580) coins
were said to have been in use in Madagascar and the islands of the
Malaya Archipelago,^ and, according to Abul-Feda, the merchants of
Java could understand the language of the natives of Madagascar.^
In the 13th century an important naval expedition was directed by
Ghiyas-ud-din Balban (1266-86 A.D.) against Tughril Khan, Governor
of Bengal, who declared himself independent of Delhi, and assumed
royal insignia. Two previous attempts to subdue him having failed,
the Sultan " resolved to march against the rebel in person, and
ordered a large number of boats to be collected on the Ganges and
the Jumna. . . . Proceeding into Oudh, he ordered a general levy,
and two lakhs of men of all classes were enrolled. An immense fleet
of boats was collected, and in these he passed his army over the
Sarau (the Saraju or Gogra). The rains now came on, and, although
he had plenty of boats, the passage through the low-lying country
was difficult." Tughril fled from Lakhnauti to Jajnagar (some^ Sir
George Birdwood in his Report on the Old Records of the India
Office. ^ Reinaud's Mkmoires^ p. 236. ^ Reinaud's Abulfeda, ch.
xxii. 189
 INDIAN SHIPPING where near modern Tiperrah). Balban
marched from Lakhnauti in pursuit of the rebel with all speed, and in
a few days arrived at Sunar-gnaw. The Rai of that place, by name
Danuj Rai, met the Sultan, and an agreement was made with him
that he should guard against the escape of Tughril by water. The
expedition ended in the death of Tughril, and the complete defeat of
his army, and " such punishment as was inflicted on Lakhnauti had
never been heard of in Delhi, and no one could remember anything
like it in Hindusthan."^ The foreign travellers who visited India
towards the latter part of the same century were Abulfeda of
Damascus and the famous Marco Polo. Abulfeda (a.d. 1273-1331)
mentions the pepper of Malabar and the fine cotton manufactures of
Coromandel. Marco Polo (a.d. i 292) found the Coromandel coast a
great centre of pearl-fishing, and the Gujarat coast of desperate
piracy. These pirates sailed every year with their wives and children
in more than a hundred corsair vessels, staying out the whole
summer. They are also said to have joined in fleets of twenty to
thirty, and made a sea cordon five or six miles apart. Marco Polo also
found Sokotra a prey to multitudes of Hindu pirates who encamped
there and sold off their booty. He also mentions Call (Kayal in the
Tinnevelly dis^ Barni's Tarikh-i-Firozshahi, in Elliot, vol. iii., pp. 1 15-
12 1. 190
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD trict) as the city where '* all the
ships touch that come from the West . . . laden with horses and
other things for sale." Of Coilum (Quilon) he says, " a great deal of
brazil is got here, also ginger and pepper, and very fine indigo. The
merchants from Arabia and Persia come hither with their ships." He
speaks of Tana (Thana) " where grow no pepper or spices, but
plenty of incense. There is much traffic here and many ships and
merchants frequent the place, for there is a great export of leather
and buckram and cotton." Of Cambaet (Cambay) he says, " it
produces indigo in plenty, and much fine buckram ; cotton is
exported hence ; there is a great trade in ktdes, which are very well
dressed!' He speaks of Aden as a " port to which many ships of India
come with their cargoes." He also mentions Indian vessels sailing as
far as the island of Zanguebar, which they took twenty days in
reaching from Coromandel, but three months in returning, " so
strong does the current lie towards the south." Marco Polo has also
left some very important and interesting details regarding Indian
ships which are well worth a notice. According to him, the ships that
are employed in navigation are built of fir-timber ; they are all
doubled-planked, that is, they have a course of sheathing boards
laid over the planking in every part. These are caulked with oakum
both within and without, and are fastened 191
 INDIAN SHIPPING with iron nails. The bottoms are
smeared over with a preparation of quicklime and hemp, pounded
together and mixed with oil procured from a certain tree, which
makes a kind of unguent that '* retains its viscous properties more
firmly and is a better material than pitch." Besides the construction
of Indian ships, Marco Polo gives details regarding their size, form,
and fittings, and the mode of repairing. He saw ships of so large a
size as to require a crew of 300 men, and other ships that were
manned by crews of 200 and 150 men. These ships could carry from
five ^)^ to six thousand baskets (or mat bags) of pepper, a fact
which indicates to some extent the tonnage of these Indian vessels.
These ships were moved with oars or sweeps, and each oar required
four men to work it. They were usually accompanied by two or three
large barks with a capacity to contain one thousand baskets of
pepper, and requiring a crew of sixty, eighty, or one hundred sailors.
These small craft were often employed to tow the larger vessels,
when working their oars, or even under sail, provided, of course, the
wind be on the quarter, and not when right aft, because in that case
the sails of the larger vessel must becalm those of the smaller, which
would in consequence be run down. Besides these barks, these ships
carried with them as many as ten small boats for the purpose of
carrying out anchors, for fishing, and a variety of other services. 192
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD As in modern steamers and ocean-
liners, these boats were slung over the sides of the main ship and
lowered into the water when there was occasion to use them. The
barks also were in like manner provided with their smaller boats.
The larger vessel had usually a single deck, and below the deck the
space was divided into sixty small cabins, fewer or more according
to the size of vessel, and each cabin afforded accommodation for
one merchant. It was also provided with a good helm, with four
masts, and as many sails. Some ships of the larger class had,
besides the cabins, as many as thirteen bulkheads or divisions in the
hold, formed of thick planks let into each other {incastrati, mortised
or rabbeted). The object of these was to guard against accidents
which might make the vessel spring a leak, such as " striking on a
rock or receiving a stroke from a whale." For if water chanced to run
in, it could not, in consequence of the boards being so well fitted,
pass from one division to another, and the goods might be easily
removed from the division affected by the water. In case of a ship
needing repair, the practice was to give her a course of sheathing
over the original boarding, thus forming a third course, and this, if
she needed further repairs, was repeated even to the number of six
layers, after which she was condemned as unserviceable and not
seaworthy. Marco Polo has also left a very interesting 193 o
 INDIAN SHIPPING description of the pearl-fishings of
Malabar. It was conducted by a number of merchants who formed
themselves into several companies, and employed many vessels and
boats of different sizes, well provided with ground-tackle by which to
ride safely at anchor. They engaged and carried with them persons
who were skilled in the art of diving for the oysters in which the
pearls were enclosed. These the divers brought up in bags made of
netting that were fastened about their bodies, and then repeated the
operation, rising to the surface when they could no longer keep their
breath, and after a short interval diving again. ^ In the 14th century,
we have in the account of the voyage across the Indian Ocean of
Friar Odoric^ (a.d. 1321), in a ship that carried full 700 people, a
striking proof of the capacity and maritime skill of the Rajput sailors
of Gujarat; who could successfully manage such large vessels.^
There is even an earlier mention of Rajput ships sailing between
Sumena (Somnath) and China in Yule's Cathay, To the same century
belonged Ibn Batuta, the greatest Arab traveller, ^ The Travels of
Marco Polo (Marsden's Translation), ed. Thomas Wright. 2 Dr.
Vincent remarks : " This is a confirmation of the account we have of
those large ships from the time of Agatharcides down to the 1 6th
century; the ships of Guzarat which traversed the Indian Ocean in all
ages." ' Stevenson, in Kerr's Voyages, xviii. 324. 194
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD who spent twenty-four years (a.d. i
325-1 349) in travelling. Being sent by Muhammad Tughlak on an
embassy to China, he embarked from Cambay, and after many
adventures at Calicut, Ceylon and Bengal he at last took his passage
toward China in a junk bound for " Java," as he called it, but in fact
Sumatra. Returning from China, he sailed direct from the coast of
Malabar to Muscat and Ormuz. He confirms the statement of Marco
Polo regarding the maritime and piratical habits of the Malabar
people, who, however, captured only those vessels which attempted
to pass their ports without the payment of toll. Wassaf, in the same
century, speaks of the large importation of Arab and Persian horses
to Malabar, which in the reign of Abu Bakr even reached the modest
figure of 10,000 horses every year.^ This horse trade was also
noticed by Marco Polo cW^ _(^^Dr-^3o8), who remarks that "the
greater part of the revenue of the country is employed in obtaining
the horses from foreign countries." '^ Wassaf also notices the
entrepdt trade of Malabar by which the produce of remotest China
was consumed in the farthest West.^ In Northern India, in a.d. 1353
and a.d. 1360, ^ Elliot, vol. iii., pp. 28, 32, 33, ' Travels^ Murray's
Edition, p. 296. ^ Elliot, vol. iii., p. 35. 195 O 2
 INDIAN SHIPPING two expeditions were directed against
Lakhnauti bySultan Firoz Shah Tuglak, in both of which " many
barrier-breaking boats (kistiha-i-bandkushan) were used, in which
his whole army, consisting of a lac of troops, had to embark in
crossing rivers round the islands of Ekdala and Sunar-gnaw." ^ In
a.d. 1372, with an army consisting of 90,000 cavalry and 480
elephants, Firoz Shah led an expedition against Thatta, in which he
collected and used a fleet of as many as 5,000 boats, in which the
army descended the River Indus and in a few days reached Thatta.^
In A.D. 1388 Timur crossed the mighty river of the Indus by means
of a bridge of boats constructed in the short space of two days ;
afterwards he marched to capture the island of Shahabuddin in the
River Jhelum, though Shahabuddin effected his escape down the
river in 200 boats. Shahabuddin's fleet of boats was, however,
completely destroyed near Multan. Timur again had to fight several
naval battles on the Ganges. On one occasion he had to encounter a
force of Hindus coming down the river in 48 boats, which afterwards
fell into his hands.^ After Marco Polo, the most important foreign
notice of India is the account of Mahuan,^ the ^ Tarikh-i-Firozshahi,
in Elliot, vol. iii., pp. 293 ft. 2 Ibid.^ pp. 321-322. ' Malfuzat-i-Timuri,
in Elliot, vol. iii., pp. 408-12, 453. * George Phillips in the J.R.A.S.,
1896, pp. 204 ft". 196
 MAHOMEDAN PERIOD Mahomedan Chinaman, who was
attached as interpreter to the suite of Cheng-Ho when he made his
voyages to India and other places at the beginning of the 15th
century. He describes Calicut (a.d. 1409) as a great emporium of
trade, frequented by merchants from all quarters, and says " when a
ship arrives from China the King's Overseers, with a chitti (capitalist),
go on board and make an invoice of the goods, and a day is fixed for
valuing the cargo." According to Mahuan, the Ming-shih, or history of
the Ming dynasty, records that Ai-yasei-ting (Ghiyas-ud-din Azam
Shah, who reigned A.D. 1 385- 1 457), the King of Pang-Kola, sent
to the Chinese court in 1408 an embassy with presents including
horses and saddles, gold and silver ornaments, drinking vessels of
white porcelain with azure flowers, and many other things ; and that
in 1409 the same king, called Gai-ya-syu-ting, sent another embassy
to China. In a.d. 141 2 the Chinese ambassador of the return
embassy met Indian envoys bringing the usual presents, and learnt
from them that the king had died and had been succeeded by
Saifuting (Saif-ud-din Hamza Shah, 1407-10). According to Chinese
annals he, too, sent an embassy to the Chinese emperor, with a
letter written on gold-leaf, and presenting a giraffe. This embassy
arrived in China in the 12th year of Vung-lo, A.D. 141 5. In this year
also a Chinese embassy under Prince Tsi-chao, with presents, was
197
 INDIAN SHIPPING received by the Bengal king, his queen
and ministers.^ Thus, in the first half of the 15th centuiy, an active
sea-borne trade and commercial intercourse were going on between
Bengal and China ; and the silver money of Bengal used at this
period to be called Tung-kia, weighing about 163*24 grains. For the
15th century Abd-er-Razzak^ (a.d. 1442) has left a highly
interesting account of the important harbour of Calicut, which is
regarded as " one of the greatest shipping centres of the world in
this period." Says he : — From Calicut are vessels continually sailing
for Mecca, which are for the most part laden with pepper. The
inhabitants of Calicut are adventurous sailors, and pirates do not
dare to attack the vessels of Calicut. In this harbour one may find
everything that can be desired. Again : — Security and justice are so
firmly established in this city that the most wealthy merchants bring
thither from maritime countries considerable cargoes, which they
unload, and unhesitatingly send into the markets and the bazaars,
without thinking in the meantime of any necessity of checking the
account or of keeping watch over the goods. The officers of the
customhouse take upon themselves the charge of looking after the
merchandise, over which they keep watch day and night. When a
sale is effected they levy a duty on the goods of one-fortieth part ; if
they are not sold they make no charge on them whatsoever. In other
parts a strange practice is adopted. When a vessel sets sail for a
certain point, and suddenly is driven by a decree of Divine
Providence into another roadstead, the inhabitants, under the
pretext that the wind has driven it there, plunder the ship. But at
Calicut, every ship, whatever place it may come from, or wherever it
may be bound, when it puts into this port is treated like other
vessels, and has no trouble of any kind to put up with. ^ George
Phillips in ihe J.R.A .S., 1896, pp. 204 ff. y' "^ India in the Fifteenth
Century (Hakluyt Society's publication), i. 14, i. 19. 198
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