I remember how amazed I was when I first saw an aerial shot of the Taj Mahal. It offered an entirely different perspective, a more provocative and panoramic one, than the static frontal view. In a similar way, Sanjeev Sanyal’s Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India’s Geography offers a fresh view of India’s contours over the ages.
Sanyal is an economist by education and a banker by profession and is based in Singapore. It was his curiosity and passion about India’s evolution through the ages that made him pore several texts, travel to many places and eventually write this utterly delightful book on India’s geography. Sanyal says, “… [H]istory is not just politics – it is the result of the complex interactions between a large number of factors. Geography is the most important of these factors….[J]ust as geography affects history, history too affects geography.”
Sanyal starts his history of India’s geography some 158 million years ago when India and Madagascar separated from Africa. Around 90 million years ago India separated from Madagascar and drifted northward. Around 55-60 million years ago, it collided with the Eurasian plate pushing up the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau.
Moving from prehistory to history, Sanyal discusses the available evidence for a grand ancient civilization: the archaeological evidence of the Harappan cities and the literature of the Vedic tradition. While there is a lot of debate whether the Harappan civilization coincided with the Rig Vedic period, Sanyal seems to be inclined towards that view. A defining event in the Rig Vedic period seems to be the drying of the Saraswati (which is identified as the Ghaggar by Sanyal). Sanyal says, “The world of the Harappans and the Rig Veda dissolved as the Saraswati died.” People started migrating and the second age of urbanization was centered in the Gangetic plains. This was the period of the great epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Sanyal interjects several interesting nuggets of information along the way. For instance, I did not know that Gurgaon was once a village that belonged to Dronacharya and that Gurgaon literally means “Village of the Teacher”. Sanyal says, “Civilizations have long memories, both conscious and sub-conscious, and the legendary deeds of ancient heroes can echo down the centuries.”
Several commentators have criticized Indians for not having a sense of history. Sanyal goes to great lengths to debunk this belief. He says that Ashoka’s columns and rock inscriptions strewn over the entire subcontinent were a way of communicating with the future denizens of India. “Like monarchs around the world,” Sanyal says, “Ashoka wanted to be remembered. He wanted future generations to be impressed by his power and to think well of him.”
Sanyal writes about the rise and fall of the Mauryas, the Guptas, the Mughals, and the Europeans in a slightly tongue in cheek manner. This makes the book highly enjoyable. It almost feels that one is having a bedtime discussion with a highly wise and experienced man who has seen history happen with his own eyes. One goes to sleep with the vast weight of India’s civilization pressing on one’s chest.
Sanyal is an economist by education and a banker by profession and is based in Singapore. It was his curiosity and passion about India’s evolution through the ages that made him pore several texts, travel to many places and eventually write this utterly delightful book on India’s geography. Sanyal says, “… [H]istory is not just politics – it is the result of the complex interactions between a large number of factors. Geography is the most important of these factors….[J]ust as geography affects history, history too affects geography.”
Sanyal starts his history of India’s geography some 158 million years ago when India and Madagascar separated from Africa. Around 90 million years ago India separated from Madagascar and drifted northward. Around 55-60 million years ago, it collided with the Eurasian plate pushing up the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau.
Moving from prehistory to history, Sanyal discusses the available evidence for a grand ancient civilization: the archaeological evidence of the Harappan cities and the literature of the Vedic tradition. While there is a lot of debate whether the Harappan civilization coincided with the Rig Vedic period, Sanyal seems to be inclined towards that view. A defining event in the Rig Vedic period seems to be the drying of the Saraswati (which is identified as the Ghaggar by Sanyal). Sanyal says, “The world of the Harappans and the Rig Veda dissolved as the Saraswati died.” People started migrating and the second age of urbanization was centered in the Gangetic plains. This was the period of the great epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Sanyal interjects several interesting nuggets of information along the way. For instance, I did not know that Gurgaon was once a village that belonged to Dronacharya and that Gurgaon literally means “Village of the Teacher”. Sanyal says, “Civilizations have long memories, both conscious and sub-conscious, and the legendary deeds of ancient heroes can echo down the centuries.”
Several commentators have criticized Indians for not having a sense of history. Sanyal goes to great lengths to debunk this belief. He says that Ashoka’s columns and rock inscriptions strewn over the entire subcontinent were a way of communicating with the future denizens of India. “Like monarchs around the world,” Sanyal says, “Ashoka wanted to be remembered. He wanted future generations to be impressed by his power and to think well of him.”
Sanyal writes about the rise and fall of the Mauryas, the Guptas, the Mughals, and the Europeans in a slightly tongue in cheek manner. This makes the book highly enjoyable. It almost feels that one is having a bedtime discussion with a highly wise and experienced man who has seen history happen with his own eyes. One goes to sleep with the vast weight of India’s civilization pressing on one’s chest.
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