Abstract
Political violence, susceptible to various definitions, is unfortunately endemic in the world we inhabit, as Singh (p. x) observes. In attempting to find out whether ancient Indian political thought can offer us resolutions in this grim scenario, Singh takes us on a journey that is fascinating and often enlightening, but sometimes frustrating.
Organized in five substantive chapters, Singh begins by discussing how, in the 20th century, Indian political leaders engaged with and drew on resources from the past, which provided multivalent symbols, ideas, ideals and role models. This leads on to a delimitation of what the author understands by the categories of ‘political’ and ‘violence’. While Singh casts a wide net to capture and contextualize the notion of violence, the understanding of the political tends to be restricted, effectively, to a discussion on kingship and the state; the possibility of the political in the everyday thus drops off the radar, leaving a vast terrain that is virtually unexplored. Yet, within the relatively narrow space that Singh delineates, she provides us with a rich and often fresh account of what is conventionally understood as political/dynastic history, intertwined with ideas derived from a range of textual traditions, as well as numismatic and inscriptional evidence and visual material.
The tone and tenor for the first part of the volume is set by the first substantive chapter, titled ‘Foundation’, which traces the political history of the early mahajanapadas as well as the Mauryan Empire. This is juxtaposed with Buddhist and Jain ideas on kingship and non-violence, as well as those available from the two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Expectedly, the discussion begins with the Vedic antecedents, locating later developments as a response or a reaction to these. Included also is an outline of the complex Buddhist concept of the cakkavattin, straddling mundane and other worlds. Singh illustrates these by drawing on the rich narrative tradition of Buddhist texts, giving the reader a sense of their texture and flavour. Understandably, Ashoka looms large over this chapter. There is little that is novel in the discussion, as Singh traverses through the familiar terrain of the Ashokan inscriptions to underscore the salient features of his celebrated dhamma, its possible role in shaping the discourse around the term, and its Sanskrit equivalent, dharma. Similarly, the narratives extracted from the epics do not provide startlingly new insights. Singh rightly highlights the intertextuality amongst the traditions she investigates as she moves towards her conclusion that kingship was inexorably enmeshed in violence, even as the latter was not invariably valorized.
The next chapter carries the reader from the post-Mauryan to the pre-Gupta period. The account of political history is buttressed by an analysis of the Arthashastra, the Manusmṛti, the works of Bhāsa as illustrative of the genre of kavya, contemporary Buddhist narratives and traditions, the earliest prashastis as well as visual representations of royalty. While the discussion on the Arthashastra and the Manusmṛti covers familiar terrain, the brief excursus on Bhāsa gestures towards ways in which the epic traditions could be reworked creatively. A concern with intertextuality also illuminates Singh’s discussion of the epigraphic corpus generated during this period, especially the tradition of prashastis that emerged in different parts of the subcontinent. This sense of dialogic traditions rather than ideas sealed in watertight compartments permeates the discussion on Buddhist texts such as the Buddhacharita as well. Some of the discussion, such as that on the Ashokavadana, is rich and vivid in its occasionally gory details. More importantly, Singh deftly highlights the ways in which the Ashoka of the avadana diverges from the one we know from inscriptions, and the implications of this for our understanding of political violence. Given the range of materials that Singh explores in this chapter, including several genres of texts, inscriptions and visual material in sculpture and coins, one would have expected a more systematic discussion on contexts of circulation, and the extent to which these could have shaped representations of kingship and violence, legitimate or otherwise. This could have enriched the analysis considerably.
The Guptas and the Vakatakas form the focus of the third chapter, where kingship and violence are tracked, once again, through a range of sources. These include well-known inscriptions such as the Prayag Prashasti of Samudragupta, as well as texts such as the Nitisara of Kamandaka, which has been relatively less studied. Singh provides an illuminating comparison with the Arthashastra, demonstrating, in the process, the dynamism of the tradition represented by these texts. The focus on the works of Kalidasa and Vishakhadatta is also fruitful, highlighting complex representational strategies. The discussion on the Panchatantra, likewise, is interesting, as it allows for a fresh perspective on the central theme, leading Singh to conclude that it can be read as a subversive text. Singh succeeds in piecing together a picture of complexity, difference as well as a common understanding of legitimate and illegitimate violence associated with kingship through her investigations.
The last two chapters are more thematically focused, dealing with war and the wilderness respectively. They are broad in their sweep, and track the themes through a range of sources. For instance, the chapter on warfare includes a discussion on representations in a range of literary traditions, inscriptions as well as reflections in a variety of texts, apart from the recourse to war as a metaphor. Singh demonstrates that neither Jainism nor Buddhism advocated absolute non-violence or pacifism. There is some amount of repetition as sources such as the Ashokan inscriptions and the Arthashastra are mined yet again, although the focus is slightly different. What is more interesting is the brief foray into the Tamil literary tradition and the analysis of the hero stones, memorializing warriors fallen in battle. So also is the insistence on not flattening out or collapsing descriptions of warfare in Sanskrit literary traditions. Through her reflective and contextual analysis, Singh establishes that warfare was regarded as one amongst a range of possibilities, and rarely as the first or even best means of resolving a conflict.
The chapter on the wilderness begins with a reflection on the valorization of the royal hunt in a context where those who hunted for their livelihood were generally denigrated. Amongst other things, Singh demonstrates that conflict with forest dwellers was an intrinsic strand in early Indian understandings of kingship. Singh carefully eschews reducing the relationship to a monolithic image, arguing instead for complexity and diversity. As in several other chapters, Vedic reflections, in this case on the complex relationship between the forest and settled areas and their populations, provide the entry point for the chapter. Singh works out the relationship between these intersecting yet distinct zones within the Varnashrama framework before moving on to other, non-Brahmanical traditions. Also interesting is the discussion on attitudes towards and representations of animals in a variety of traditions. Yet Singh does not rest content with these interventions—she includes a detailed analysis of representations of the royal hunt as well as the complex, conflictual relations with forest peoples, whose voices resist being recorded within the ‘great’ tradition. In drawing attention to this fraught domain, Singh enriches our understanding of the marginalized substantially.
Are there areas where one could have expected more? The narrowly delimited definition of the political compels Singh to eschew any substantial discussion on some of the most central and violent episodes in the Mahabharata, such as the disrobing of Draupadi. Similarly, the discussion on the Ramayana skirts past the violence inflicted on Sita by Ravana, and in a different sense, by Rama. In other words, structural, gendered violence slips out of the narrative, in spite of its richness and complexity.
At another level, one of the most fascinating chapters of the Arthashastra, that on janapadanivesha or the settling of the countryside (Book II, Chapter 1), with its detailed provisions for regulating and restricting the quotidian lives of cultivators, escapes Singh’s attention. The restrictions on renunciation and recreation as being unproductive activities, for instance, perhaps deserved some comment. Would such settlement/resettlement and regulation if not regimentation involve violence? We catch a glimpse of these possibilities in Ashoka’s celebrated statement in Major Rock Edict XIII, where he talks about the deaths and displacement entailed by the Kalinga war. But, perhaps more important than such dramatic moments of disruption, we may wish to revisit the everyday impact of state interventions on the lives of ordinary women and men, not only in the forest but also in the settled villages and towns.
In her conclusion, Singh returns to and addresses her initial concerns, which are obviously shaped by the present moment. In drawing attention to the diversity of ideas and practices that prevailed in early India, she rightly cautions against reducing these to a monolithic and monochromatic ‘Indian’ position. In tracing the myriad ways in which early ideas were expressed, transformed and transmitted, she alerts us to the problems and pitfalls of a seemingly easy and facile appropriation of complex traditions to create a quick fix idealized past to address the problems of the present. She opens up opportunities for reflection rather than instant reactions, a timely reminder in our troubled times, where engineered spontaneity is often a substitute for reasoned responses.