Did IVC have low-intensity wars?

[N. Ganesan]

Was IVC violent?
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In early 20th century, the prevailing scholarly view was that Mayan
kings were peace loving and philosophical musers interested only in
astronomy, and heavenly speculations. In recent years, when the Mayan
civilization's script was decoded so their texts and inscriptions can
be read, and as Mayan archaeology progresses, the old, romanticized
view is overturned, and it becomes abundantly clear that the Mayas
were a violent people. They sacrificed humans, and there was constant
warfare amongst them. They took slaves from enemy states, and in late
phases killed many captives and exhibited the dead bodies on show.
Ultimately all this leads to abandonment of the Mayan cities.

Looking at Tamil Nadu, archaeologically very few material remains to
confirm the constant and incessant warfare among the many chiefs and
kings in the first four centuries AD. Yet, when one reads the sangam
texts of puRam poems, there are gory details of constant war and
battles. The kings are accompanied by singing bards, drummers and
minstrels. However, the musicians never participate in the fighting,
acc. to sangam literature. The agricultural civilization's constant
wars and descriptions of blood are very vivid, and they are not found
in Sanskrit literature. Greek heroic poetry has been compared with the
sangam corpus. For example in K. Kailasapathy, Tamil Heroic poetry,
Oxford university press, 1968. The highly praised Sangam quality is
"maRam" (valor) which is the opposite of "aRam" (dharma). MaRavar is
a major caste among Tamils even today, and they assume the title,
tEvar (< Skt. Deva).

maRam  1. valour, bravery; 2. anger, wrath; 3. enmity, hatred;
4. strength, power; 5. victory; 6. war; 7. killing; murder; 8. yama;
9. injury; 10. vice, evil, sin; 11. a limb of kalampakam describing
the refusal by mar6avars to give a girl of their clan to a king,
in marriage.

I wonder whether "maRam" is also well attested in old KannaDa texts.
Sangam literature is full of it. "aRam" (dharma) is well attested in
Tamil and KannaDa. For Kannada occurences, see
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0012&L=indology&P=R4228

The discontinuity from sangam times to the postsangam times is
de-emphasizing the maRam aspects, and emphasizing "aRam" aspects
in Life. In fact the immediately succeeding and a vast body
of literature called 18 kIzhkkaNakku is full of dharmic teachings
emphasizing aRam. Pallavan rule in fact patronizes the
Sanskrit and Brahmins with large land grants. Probably the stability
of  Gupta dynasty in the North with their patronage of the Sanskrit
culture provides a model to build kingdoms covering a wider area than
hitherto possible. Earlier in sangam times when Tamils were
transforming from an oral society towards literacy, the Brahmins and
the Jainas were moving in, but the indigenous priests were the
potters, washerfolk, conch shell cutters, and so on and their
infuence is highly visible. The discontinuity from sangam to Pallavan
era is accomplished by a radical shift of sponsorship from the native,
often indigent, priests to the Brahmins. The Brahmins provided in
Pallavan times an independent source of auspiciousness, magic and
ritual which orignally were provided by people like musicians,
potters, and washerfolk in earlier times. Pallavas desiring to build
large area kingdoms stopped sponsoring the native priests and go for
the Brahminical models of auspiciousness. State support started
flowing to the Brahmins and the all encompassing Temple culture
of South India was  born. Old ways of several petty chieftains,
each with a troupe of bards and constant battles, have come to pass
when the kIzkkaNakku literature gets written emphasizing dharma,
Pallavas rule, and the Brahmins and Temples flourish.

The Indus Valley Culture (IVC) society was essentially oral, and their
scripts did not evolve much and the script evolution is what one would
expect if it was a literate society. A vast majority of the IVC seals
has a mere 5 logographic signs, a main hurdle for their decoding.
W. A. Fairservis  and others suggest each animal symbol is totemic
representing a kulam 'group' of folks. IVC has very few weapon remains
left. Did these IVC groups also involve themselves in low-intensity,
but constant conflicts?

Regards,
N. Ganesan


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