Aryavarth Descends

Synonym of Time

Part two

How Aryavarth started collapsing: Kurus, Bharatvarshis, Mlechhs of North, Suryavanshis and Chandravarshis. Fall of Yadavas of Dwarka, loss of knowledge- Incantations, Bhramastra, celestial weapons. Return of gods to their own planets and human civilization left on their own to grow.

 Artwork by- Duc Haahn Trinh.

Aryavarth in general is a term for the northern part of India, Pakistan, East Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Assam. This doesn’t mean that the “Dakshina” (Southern India) was never a part of Bharat Civilization. Aryavarth is the geographical region where the Civilized Kingdoms, Vedic kingdoms existed. As the name Arya means noble and civilized (in Sanskrit), Aryavarth simply meant the region of major Civilization.

Aryan and Dravidian are not a separate race as Max Muller suggested. The theory has been debunked by the recent DNA study in Rakhagarhi Project. Theory of Aryan Dravidian was a construct to divide the society and break the backbone of Indic Civilization by the British historians. So what is Dravidian?

“Dravida” means Peninsula in Sanskrit; Dra- 3, Vida- Land.

Men who lived here were hence called Dravida. The reason for Aryavarth not having much ground in Dravida was that hardly anyone would cross the Godavari River and travel south. An ancient town at the foothills of Velliangiri Hills in Tamil Nadu is mentioned in Puranas and Vedangas. Whereas there is a mention of another town which was at the foothills of Eastern Ghats near Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu which was destroyed due to flood.  

Major floods from all the three sides of Dravida, land sliding and final formation of Western and Eastern Ghats in south resulted in the abandoning of the place. Most of the Dakshina Bharat (South India) was still covered by dense forests. Plus the Dandaka forest itself acted as a great barrier. This is the reason why the civilized humans did not build their settlements there. Also, the land of Aravarth was rich and sufficient enough that no one ever imagined migrating further south.

Due to no major kingdoms in south, Vedic Aryavarth does not mention much about it. Also note that in the previous post, I had mentioned the difference between a Hindu Civilization and Vedic Civilization.  And Aryavarth was a land of kingdoms that were ruled according to the Shaastras.

Vedic Aravarth comprises of 16 Mahajanapadas-

1.          Kuru Rashtra- NE Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Haryana. (Yamuna-Ganga)

Capital- Hastinapur (UP) and Indraprasth (Delhi/Dehlavi).

Kingdom of CHAKRAVARTIN SAMRAT BHARAT who unified Aryavarth and named it BHARAT.

Hastinapur was the capital of Bharatvarsh/Akhand Bharat at its peak.

Indraprasth became the center of Bharat Civilization during TOMAR DYNASTY and CHAUHAN DYNASTY. Which was carried forward by the DILLI SULATANATE and MUGHAL DYNASTY. 

3 Major Jain Tirthankaras were born- Shantinath, Kunthunath, Aranath.

Jain texts mention of Hastinapur coincides with the time mentioned in Vedangas and Hindu Shruti.

2.        Panchal- Uttar Pradesh (Yamuna- Ganga)

Capital- Ahichchatra and Kampilya-nagar (near Ramnagar, Barreilly District)

3.        Anga- West Bengal, Bangladesh and East Bihar (Ganga)

Capital- Champa (Bagalpur, Bihar)

4.        Gandhar/Kandhar- Khyber Pakhtunkwa Province of Pakistan and Kandahar province of East Afghanistan.

Capital- Pushkalavati (Charasada, NE Peshawar), Purushapura (Peshawar), Takshashila (Taxila in Pakistan).

{Mentioned in Rig Veda and Avesta}

A major empire to emerge out of this region was the Kushan Empire. And Chanakya was from Gandhar who was the mastermind of Mauryan Empire.

Taxila University is one of the earliest universities of the world when Bharat was a “Vishwa-Guru” and students across Greece, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt and China would come to study.

5.        Magadh- Bihar (Ganga River)

Capital- Rajgriha (Nalanda District) and Pataliputra (Patna).

2 Major Empires which emerged out of this are Mauryan Empire and Gupta Empire.

6.        Kashi- Uttar Pradesh. Single Town Kingdom. (Ganga River)

It is also the oldest surviving city in the world.

Also mentioned in Shiva Purana as the city where Lord Shiva meditated.

7.         Kosala Kingdom- Uttar Pradesh and southern parts of Nepal. (Sarayu- Ganga)

Capital- Ayodhya and Shravasti (near Lucknow).

The strongest Vedic kingdom in Aryavarth.

Belonged to IKSHVAKU DYNASTY from which the most celebrated king Raja Harishchandra comes from.

Another notable king is Ramchandra who had unified the entire Aryavarth.

Notable prince- Siddharth known as Gautam Buddha currently belonged from the Ikshvaku Dynasty.

SURYAVANCHI CLAN. Ancestor of RAJPUTS.

8.       Assaka- Andhra Pradesh, Telangan and parts of Maharstra.

Capital-  Potali/Podana (Godavari River).

9.        Avanii- Malwa region, Vindhya Range.

Capital- Ujjayini. Ruled by Pradyota Dynasty.

10.    Chedi- Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (Shuktimati River)

Capital- Suktimati.

Language developed- Pali which later replaced Sanskrit in Aryavarth in medieval ages.

11.      Malla- East Uttar Pradesh.

Capital- Kusvati, near present day Gorakhpur.

Place of death of Gautam Buddha in Buddhist Texts.

12.    Matsya- Parts of Rajasthan, Haryana and Northern part of Madhya Pradesh.

Capital- Viratnagar.

Notable region where it flourished- Bharatpur, Dholpur, Alwar and Karauli.

13.    Surasena- Western Uttar Prdesh (Yamuna River).

Capital- Mathura; another important town was Vrindavan.

14.    Vrijji/ Vajji- Western Bihar and Easter Uttar Pradesh.

Capital- Vaishali; Mithila.

15.    Vatsa- Uttar Pradesh (Yamuna-Ganga).

Kausambi (Prayagraj).

16.     Kamboja- Present day Afghanistan, North-West of Gandhar/Kandhar.

Region included- Foothills of Hindu-Kush mountains, Kubha (Kabul), Balkh, Gilgit-Baltistan, Wakhan Corridor.

Notable parts of Afghanistan were- Dvyakshayana (Badakhshan province), Vartaka (Wardak province), Nurestan, Konar, Varmayan (Bamiyan), Laghman (Lampak).

Apart from 16 Mahajanapadas, there were many smaller kingdoms which were an integral member of Aryavarth.

Notable ones are-

1.          Madra- Punjab

2.        Bahlika- Balkh province of Afghanistan bordering Uzbekistan and parts of southern Bactria.

3.        Sindh- Indus Valley Civilization. (Province in Pakistan)

4.       Dwarka- Town based kingdom in Saurashtra, Okhlamandal peninsula, Gujarat.

5.        Kalinga- Orissa/ Odisha.

One more major kingdom which played an important role in Aryavarth politics despite not being a part of it due to geographical isolation was – Lanka.

Kishkindha was another kingdom in south, located in present day North Karnataka, Hampi region beside the Tunghbadra River which was crucial to the politics of Aryavarth. It was the kingdom of Vanars (most probably Neanderthals or Homo habilis, the last of its kind left in Kishkindha caves).

Point to be noted is that Vanar was not a monkey, a common misconception in the pop culture.

DWARKA was the only Republican in the entire Aryavarth whereas rest of the kingdoms were hereditarian monarchy. Dwarka was a city which was more likely built in 3200 BCE and was destroyed by 3102 BC.

Kurus were the descendants of Great king Bharat and hence were also called Bharatvarshis, being from Chandravarshi clan used to be a symbol of pride.

Two major Kshatriya Clans which ruled in Aryavarth were Suryavanshis and Chandravarshis.

Suryavanshis had reached its peak when King Ramchandra had extended the borders of Kosala to the entire Indian subcontinent and had become an ideal emperor. Centuries later the dominance of Suryavanshis came down with the rise of a Puru’s descendant, Bharat. And decades after his death his kingdom which had squeezed Suravanshis to small regions was divided among his descendants for rule. And it was the birth of Panchala kingdom, a neighbor to the Kuru kingdom. This sudden partition caused the rise of hatred among Chandravarshis. Gandhara too was a Chandravarshi kingdom who were the descendants of Great Druhyu.

Hastinapur was the major city of Aryavarth because of its history. But after the great war of Mahabharat (in 3126 BCE) in which major kingdoms of Aryavarth fought by either allying towards Indraprastha king who was in exile or towards Hastinapur’s prince; resulted in great economical depression. War of Mahabharat brought down the strength, prosperity and man power of major Mahajanapadas.  The war between the kin of Kurus led to the weakening of the Hastinapur city and resulted in the end of the dominance of the great Bharatvarshis dynasty and Kuru nation.

Artwork by Arsalan Khan

Suryavanshi vs Chandravarshi.

Also many major kingdoms were weakened further like Gandhara, Viratnagar, Bahlika etc. The only 2 major kingdoms which survived this great depression was Magadh and Kosala kingdom because it did not take part in the War of Aryavarth.

It is also the reason responsible for why Ikshavaku Dynasty of Kosala kingdom remained stable even after the end of Vedic age somewhere in 300 BC. At the later stage of Ancient period, Suryavanshi clan rose to prominence once again under the tag of RAJPUT. And Rajputs have played an important role in Bharat’s governance throughout medieval and modern era of history.

The only other major town to have survived through this deadly war of previous age was Kashi also known as Banaras/ Varanasi along with Ayodhya and Mathura. War also led to the destruction of the knowledge of powerful mantras, weapons and death of major scholars who might have been the last ones to have tremendous knowledge in their field of work.

It was the nadir of civilization. Soon the degradation of human intelligence begins too. Meanwhile the world outside Aryavarth started changing rapidly. The world which was still in its nomadic lifestyle or dependent on the civilized troops to lead them were left without a guardian.

The Perspective Enigma has again and again focused on the aspects of Kaala, Time(in Perception of Time), Cosmic intervention (Inevitable Change of Macrocosm), Advanced civilization formation in ancient times and its disconnect to genius living beings leading to the ultimate Nadir only waiting for the opportunity of men bouncing back in their civilization graph in the previous posts (Hindustan vs Bharat).

Questions raising the usefulness of Theist and Atheist, Faith and Religion, Tradition and Cuture, Science and Belief have been addressed in the post Hindustan vs Bharat, whereas Vuja De goes at the depth of cosmic energy and Perceiving with disabling Knowledge agrees with the Yogic perception of human intelligence which has worked well for scientists.

The next post shall focus on the details of each factors like religion and science which led to the Dark ages of civilization and human mind. It will also discuss about the external factors like the geo-politics and role of faith which brought a change in the civilization of west, and middle east which hence brought change in Indian subcontinent.