History

Early Recorded History
The Indus River valley civilization, which existed mainly in Pakistan, was the home of the major cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, and several minor cities, such as Lothal, near Ahmedabad (around 2500 BC).

India is the birthplace of two of the world’s major religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the smallest religions, Jainism.

Modern recorded history begins with the life of Gautama Buddha, between 563 and 483 BC, but there is little recorded about this period. Darius (521-486 BC), the king of Persia, conquered Sind and part of Punjab. Alexander the Great’s armies from Greece reached India in 326 BC, but refused to go further than the Beas River, the easternmost part of the Persian Empire. They did not gain any real control in India.

Buddhism started to become a powerful religion around 500 BC. Jainism was also established around this time. Before this time, Hinduism was the only established major religion. Both Buddhism and Jainism did not accept the Vedas or the caste system.

The Mauryas and Ashoka
A large part of northern India was once controlled by the Maurya Empire, under Chandragupta, who came to power in 321 BC. It is said that his army consisted of over 500,000 men, who were paid directly by the emperor. The Mauryas ruled from their capital, Pataliputra, which is at the site of the present city of Patna in Bihar. They had a well-managed empire, an efficient system to collect taxes, and a good agricultural society. It is said that Chandragupta was advised by the Brahmin Chanakya (Kautilya), author of the Arthashastra, and thus received good political and practical advice.

The Maurya Empire reached its peak and controlled much of India under Emperor Ashoka (273-232 BC). Ashoka ruled most of India—from the Himalayas to Mysore and from Afghanistan to Assam—but did not rule the southern part of the Indian peninsula. Ashoka converted to Buddhism in 262 BC. He established Buddhist pillars, rock-carved edicts, and stupas all over India. Ashoka’s pillars and edicts can be seen in Delhi, Gujarat, Orissa, Sanchi (in Madhya Pradesh), near Varanasi at Sarnath, and in many other places. Ashoka was a major force in the spread of Buddhism all over India and eventually abroad. Ashoka’s son was sent to Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism there. During his rule, the Mauryan Empire controlled more of India than any other ruler had in history, except the Mughals and the British. After his death in 232 BC, the empire began to crumble, and finally it collapsed in 184 BC.

Early Period and the Guptas
Different empires rose and fell after the Mauryas. The Sungas dynasty replaced the Mauryan Empire, ruling from 184 to 70 BC. The Gandharan Kingdom was established in Punjab. The Telugus gained power in the southeast.
During this period, many Buddhist structures were built, and impressive cave temples were constructed. This is the period of Hinayana (“lesser vehicle”) Buddhism. Under this school of Buddhism, the Buddha’s form cannot be displayed and his presence is shown through various symbols, such as footprints and stupas. Mahayana (“greater vehicle”) Buddhism, in which statues and pictures of Buddha are shown, began to be popular around 100 AD. Hinayana Buddhism began to decline and it eventually lost its popularity around 400 AD.

In 319 AD, Chandragupta II founded the Gupta Empire, controlling most of northern India. They ruled from Patna and later from other capitals, such as Ayodhya. Their power lasted until 606 AD.

After the demise of the Gupta Empire, a number of smaller Hindu kingdoms were established. The Rajputs took power in Rajasthan and north-central India. The Chandellas of Bundelkhand were a Rajput dynasty responsible for building the temples in Khajuraho.

In the 11th century, the Somavamshi Dynasty controlled Orissa, ruling from their capital in Bhubaneswar. They are responsible for building the Lingaraja and Jagannath temples.

Early Muslim Periods
Mahmud of Ghazni conducted the first major Muslim attacks on India. Between 1001 and 1027, Mahmud of Ghazni attacked India seventeen times. He destroyed many temples, killed the citizens, and ransacked cities. He sacked the cities of Mathura (UP) in 1017 and Somnath (Gujarat) in 1024. He made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer India. Ghazni has since become a small town in Afghanistan. His successors continued to raid India, one of them taking Varanasi in 1033.In 1038 the Seljuk Turks captured Ghazni and the raids on India stopped.

Mohammed of Ghori (Mu’izzud Din) was the first Muslim to actually conquer and rule a part of India. One of his generals, Mohammed Khilji, destroyed Buddhist monasteries and killed many of the priests, bringing about a decline in Buddhism in India. In 1192 Mohammed of Ghori took Ajmer. The next year his general, Quib-ub-din, captured Varanasi and Delhi. Quib-ub-din became the first Sultan of Delhi after Mohammed of Ghori died in 1206. In Delhi he began the Qutb Minar victory tower and the Quwwat ul Islam Mosque.

His successor Iltutmish (1211–36) extended the control of Delhi Sultanate from Sind in the west to Bengal in the east. The Delhi Sultanate controlled a good part of northern India by 1230. The Sultanate of Delhi did not have a consistent territory under their rule—the kingdom expanded and contracted depending on the ruler.

In 1297 Ala-ud-din extended the borders into Gujarat, but he could not maintain the expansion. Mohammed Tughlaq (1325–51) in 1338, moved his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. After several years he moved the capital back to Delhi. During his rule the Bahmani dynasty was established in Central India in 1347, and the Delhi Sultanate began to lose power. The Vijayanagar Empire also began to rise at this time.

The Mongol, Timur the Lame (Tamerlane) from Samarkand made a ruinous raid into India in 1398, severely weakening the Delhi Sultanate’s rule. He stayed in India for less than six months, during which time over five million people are believed to have been killed. After Timur sacked Delhi, independent kingdoms were set up in Gujarat, Mewar, and Marwar in Rajasthan, Gwalior, and several other places. The Delhi Sultanate by this time was just another kingdom in North India.

The Afghan Lodi Dynasty ruled from Delhi from 1451 to 1526. Sikander Lodi (1489-1517) conquered Jaipur and Bihar. Babur defeated his successor Ibrahim in 1526.

Different rulers had different religious tolerances. Some would destroy whatever temples that they could. Pherose Khan Jughalak (1351-1388) destroyed all the temples in his territory. When Sikander Lodi was emperor of Delhi, he destroyed all the temples in the areas that he conquered.

Despite the religious persecution and the better treatment given to converts to Islam, after 800 years the Muslims were able to convert only twenty-five percent of the population. The Muslims could not rule without Hindu cooperation, and this lent solidarity to the Hindus.

The Mughals
Babur, who organized an army in Kabul, Afghanistan, established the Mughal Empire when he defeated the combined forces of the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, and the Hindu Raja of Gwalior, at Panipat (80km north of Delhi) in 1526. xe "Babur" Babur was born on February 15, 1483 in Russian Turkestan, and he was a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. In just four years he had extended his kingdom from Kabul in the west to Bengal in the east.

After Babur’s death in 1530 in Lahore, his son Humayun took control of the land that Babur had conquered. Sher Shah, of south Bihar and Bengal, with the help of Humayun’s two brothers, defeated him in 1540.Humayun fled and went to Iran (Persia). Humayun lived in exile for fifteen years, but returned to India in 1555 after Sher Shah’s death. He defeated Ikander Sur at Sirhund in 1555, and regained the throne. Humayun died just a year later after receiving a fatal injury while walking down the stairs of his library in the Purana Qila Fort in Delhi.

The Mughals had the most influence over India of all the Muslim rulers. There were six important Mughal emperors. The best of these was Akbar (1558–1603), who became emperor in 1556 at the age of 13. He first set out to subdue the Rajputs in Rajasthan. When he was 15 years old, he conquered Ajmer. Within ten years he had control, except for Mewar (Udaipur), of Rajasthan. In 1573, he conquered Gujarat, and in 1576 Bengal.

Akbar was able to maintain the expanded Mughal Empire. He gave many Hindu generals and administrators positions in his government, and even married a Hindu wife. He allowed freedom of religion, and his general, Man Singh of Jaipur, built the Hindu Govindaji temple in Vrindavan during his rule (Akbar donated the red sandstone from which the temple was built). He stopped the tax on non-Muslims (jizya) and the tax on Hindus going to pilgrimage places. He would have religious discussion with Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Parsis, and met Portuguese Jesuits in 1572.

The Rajputs of Rajasthan are a warrior class who are fanatical in battle. The Raj-puts fought every foreign invasion, but they never united and therefore could not organize themselves to defeat the Muslims. Thus they were defeated one by one and forced to become vassal states of the Mughal Empire.

Akbar’s son Jahangir (1605–27) maintained his father’s tolerance of other religions. The empire was stable during his rule. He spent much of his time in Kashmir. He was devoted to his wife, Nur Jahan, who had built the beautiful Itmad-ud-Daulah in Agra for her father.

The next ruler, Shah Jahan (“Ruler of the World”), built the famous Taj Mahal in Agra, and the Red Fort and Jama Masjid Mosque in Delhi. He did not maintain his father and grandfather’s attitudes toward religious tolerance. He executed all his close male relatives to secure his own position. During his rule, the British established a trading post at Madras in 1639. His son, Aurangzeb, overthrew his father and had him imprisoned in the Agra Fort until he died several years later.

The next Mughal emperor was Aurangzeb (1658–1707), who gained control of the throne when he was 40 years old. During the civil war to gain power, after defeating his brothers, he had them killed. He too expanded the Mughal Empire. He practiced religious intolerance and destroyed temples all over India. He then had mosques built over the sites.Aurangzeb spread the Mughal Empire over a good part of India, but actually caused its downfall because of his religious intolerance. He imposed the sharia (Islamic law), reimposed the hated jizya tax on non-Muslims, would only give Muslims power in his administration, and tried to replace all the Hindu tax collectors with Muslims.

After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, the Mughal Empire was severely weakened. Many of the states he had created broke up into independent kingdoms. There were nine Mughal emperors between the death of Aurangzeb and when the last Mughal ruler was exiled in 1858. With each new ruler, the territories that the Mughal Empire controlled became smaller. Oudh, Bengal, and Hyderabad became virtually independent states. The Sikhs took control of Punjab, the Marathas of central India, and the Jats took Agra. In 1739, India was invaded by Nadir Shah from Iran, who destroyed Delhi and killed over 100,000 people. He retreated when his soldiers mutinied due to not being paid. He took with him many of Delhi’s treasures, including the invaluable Peacock Throne.

There were six great Mughals. The Mughal emperors afterwards lost much of their power.

They were:
Babur - 1527–1530
Humayun - 1530–1556
Akbar - 1556–1605
Jahangir - 1605–1627
Shah Jahan- 1627–1658
Aurangzeb - 1658–1707

The Marathas and Shivaji
The Marathas from Maharashtra in central India became a major force in India between 1646 and 1680, under Shivaji. Shivaji’s father was a small overlord for the Muslim state of Bijapur. Shivaji decided to lead a rebellion to extend his father’s power. Afzal Khan, the Bijapur general, sent to put down the rebellion, agreed to meet Shivaji to work it out. During this meeting, Shivaji killed him with steel claws he had attached to his hands. He was known for his heroism and daring in battle. He was a devotee of Lord Vitthala (Krishna). He was captured and taken to Agra, but escaped. Shivaji is considered to be a hero in Maharashtra and in Mumbai. Even though he was a sudra, he was able to unite the people in the fight against the Mughals. He died in 1680.

Aurangzeb captured Shivaji’s son and had him blinded and executed. After this, the Marathas were ruled by the Peshwas, the hereditary government ministers. Over the years, the Marathas took over much of the weakening Mughal Empire. They controlled much of central India, including Maharashtra and part of Orissa. By 1750 they had expanded north almost to Delhi.

The expansion of the Marathas was halted when they were defeated at Panipat on January 13, 1761, by Ahmad Shah Durani from Afghanistan. Ahmad Shah was forced to return to Afghanistan because he had not been able to pay his troops for two years. After this defeat, the Marathas maintained their control over central India. The Marathas divided into five independent kingdoms and then eventually fell under the control of the British.

South Indian (Deccan) History
Until independence in 1947, India was never a totally united country. The empires in North India were totally different from those in the South. The rise and fall of empires in different parts of India often had no influence on empires in other parts of India. While Buddhism was at one time popular in North India, Hinduism was always the major religion in South India.

Many of the kingdoms in South India traded for centuries by sea with other countries, including the Romans, Egyptians, and later the Arabs countries and Europe. Various forms of Hinduism were spread by sea to places in Southeast Asia. The pastimes of the Ramayana are told in different forms in many places in Southeast Asia.
St Thomas the Apostle is said to have come to Kerala in 52 AD. This area has a strong Christian population now.

Several Hindu powers ruled over South India. These include the Pallavas (550–869), the Cholas (850–1173), Hoysalas, Chalukyas, Pandyas, and Cheras. The Chalukyas ruled much of the Deccan area of central India from their capital at Badami in Karnataka from 550 to 753 AD and were eventually replaced by the Rashtrakutas. The Chalukyas regained power from 972 to 1190. The Rashtrakutas controlled much of South India between 700 to 950 AD.

The Pallavas were ruling further south at this time—in what is now known as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and South Andhra Pradesh. They were the first builders of Dravidian temples, and they built the temples in Mamallapuram. They spread their influence to Thailand, Cambodia, and Java in Indonesia. In the 8th century, the Kulashekhar dynasty came to power in Kerala. Around 850 AD, the Cholas gradually took control of South India from the Pallavas. They are responsible for the great Siva temple in Thanjavur. Under the rule of Raja Raja (985–1014), they controlled most of southern India and Sri Lanka. They controlled most of Tamil Nadu, South Andhra Pradesh, and South Karnataka from 850 to 1275.

From about 1000 to 1300 AD, the Hoysala Empire ruled the area around Bangalore from the cities of Belur, Halebid, and Somnathpur. Mohammed Tughlaq’s army attacked and weakened them in 1328, and then the combined forces of other Hindu kingdoms caused the Hoysala Empire to fall.

The Muslims first arrived in northern Karnataka between 1296 and 1347. The Vijayanagar Empire was a powerful Hindu kingdom that ruled from Hampi in North Karnataka between 1336 to 1565. It was the most powerful Hindu kingdom of this time, and controlled what is now southern Karnataka, part of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and South Andhra Pradesh.

At the same time, from 1347 to 1489, the Muslim Bahmani kingdom had much power in the north part of South India. In 1489 it split into five separate kingdoms. Vijayanagar took control of Bijapur in 1520. In 1565 at the battle of Talikota, the five Bahmani kingdoms combined to destroy the city of Vijayanagar. At this time, the Vijayanagar kingdom was weakened, but continued to rule parts of South India for some time.

Later, the Bahmani kingdoms fell to the Mughals under Aurangzeb. After Aurangzeb’s death, when the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate, much of the area he had conquered became independent states. This was partly because of overexpansion and partly because of his bigotry in destroying Hindu temples.

The Portuguese, led by Vasco da Gama, first arrived in Kerala in 1498. The British East India Company first started trading in South India at Chennai in 1640. Eventually the British took over South India and the rest of India. In 1799, the Muslim rulers Tipu Sultan from Mysore, was the last power in South India to fall to the British.

The British & East India Company
The Portuguese were the first European power to come to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama came to Kerala, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1510 the Portuguese captured Goa and controlled it right up until 1961. The Portuguese maintained a monopoly on this sea route for 100 years. They lost power after competition came from the British, Dutch, and French.

The British first came to India in 1612, establishing a trading post at Surat in Gujarat. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter, giving the London-based East India Company a monopoly on British trade in India. By 1647, the Company had twenty-five trading posts in India. For the next 240 years, Britain’s interest in India was ruled by the East India Company, not by the British government. They established English as the language for government and administration purposes. Madras was founded in 1639, Bombay in 1668, and Calcutta in 1690.

The Dutch established trading posts in India. In 1672 the French established a trading post in Pondicherry. In 1746, the French captured Madras and in 1749 returned it to the British. If the British had a disagreement with a local ruler, the French would often support the ruler by supplying men and arms.

In 1756, Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal, attacked the British fort in Calcutta. During this time a good number of British died in the “black hole of Calcutta” incident. The turning point for the British was the Battle of Plassey in Bengal in June 1757. The British forces, commanded by Robert Clive, in alliance with dissatisfied Hindu landowners and Muslim soldiers, defeated Siraj-ud-daula, who was backed by the French. After this they gained a real foothold in India. Calcutta became the main city in eastern India by 1788. Around this time, the Mughal Empire was falling apart.

The British tolerated all religions. This enabled them to gain the support of the local people, who wanted to see the current leaders removed from power. The British were at first mainly interested in trade, and not in ruling the country. The British under the East India Company supplied British troops to different rulers of small states so that the states could protect themselves from invasion. In return, these rulers would pay the Company. This was often a more profitable source of income than trade. In the 18th century, the British started to annex a succession of territories.

After defeating the Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan at Srirangapatnam near Mysore in 1799, the British returned control to the former Hindu king of Mysore. In 1818, the British were able to defeat the Marathas, thus leaving only Punjab free of their control. Then in 1849, Punjab also fell after the two Sikh Wars. In 1814, the British defeated the Nepali Gorkhas. The Nepalese were forced to give up the provinces of Shimla and Kumaon, but Nepal did not become part of the Indian Empire.
By the beginning of the 19th century, virtually all of India was under British control. The British often continued to leave the actual governing to the local maharajas and Nawabs up until Independence, although they maintained strict control over the states.

In 1857, the Indian battalions of the Bengal Army mutinied. The uprising was blamed on bad administration, the removal of local rulers, and the greasing of the soldier’s bullets. It was rumored that bullets were greased with pig and cow fat. Cows are holy to Hindus and pigs are unclean according to Muslims, so both factions were angry. The xe "Uprising of 1857" uprising started in Meerut on May 10, 1857, 70 km northeast of Delhi, and spread to many of the cities in North India. The next day in Delhi, Bahadur Shah, the last Mughal Emperor, took sides with the uprising troops. There was cruelty and slaughter on both sides. The uprising never spread past northern India, however, and eventually the British regained control.

After the uprising, the British Crown took control of India from the East India Company, and began to rule India directly.

Pre-Independence
India became a good source of raw materials for Britain and also provided a market for manufactured goods. The British dominated the higher levels of the government administration and were responsible for building most of the railway lines across India.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the British slowly began handing limited power over to the local people and allowing a more democratic system. Also, higher positions in the government, once reserved only for the British, became available to Indians. The British maintained their overall control, however.

In 1885, the India National Congress was founded to enable India to begin self-rule. The All-India Muslim League was formed in 1906 to represent the Muslims, who at this time formed twenty-five percent of the population. In 1911, at the Great Durbar, King George V announced that the Capital of India would be moved from Calcutta to Delhi.

In 1915, Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi returned to India after living in South Africa for twenty years. On April 13, 1919, in Amritsar, soldiers under the command of General Dyer opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Jallianwala Bagh. Over 300 people were killed and another 1,200 injured. This was the beginning of Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance movement and the time when the people began to call him Mahatma, “great soul.”

In 1921 he renounced European clothes in favor of wearing homespun cotton (khadi) to protest the British policy of taking Indian cotton, manufacturing it into clothing in England, then selling it back to the Indians in their marketplaces. He also led a movement to protest the salt tax. Gandhi was imprisoned in 1922 and released in 1924. He later went to London to discuss the possibilities of independence.

In 1930 the Congress declared January 26 as Indian Independence Day. This day is still celebrated as Republic Day in India. That the British Labour Party won in England the July 1945 elections gave support to India’s search for its own independence. After World War II Britain no longer had the power or the desire to maintain a large, colonial empire.

Independence
When India was granted its independence, the country was divided along religious lines. The Congress Party, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, represented the Hindus, while the Muslim League was represented by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah said, “I will have India divided or India destroyed.” A “Direct Action Day” organized by the Muslim League in August 1946 saw the killing of Hindus in Calcutta, followed by a reprisal against the Muslims. In February 1947, the British government declared that Lord Louis Mountbatten would replace Lord Wavell as Viceroy, and that India would become independent by June 1947.

On August 15th, 1947, India’s Independence from England was proclaimed by Lord Mountbatten. At that time, India was split into two countries, Pakistan and India. India was to be mainly Hindu, and Pakistan mainly Muslim. Punjab was cut between the two major cities, Amritsar and Lahore. The population of Punjab was fifty-five percent Muslim, thirty percent Hindu, and fifteen percent Sikh. Before Independence, the population of Lahore was 1.2 million—500,000 were Hindus, 100,000 were Sikh. After Independence, the Hindu and Sikh population were reduced to about 100 people.

For months, over ten million people from both sides moved to the country of their choice. During this time, India and Pakistan both saw much violence, resulting in the deaths of about 250,000 (some say half a million is more accurate) people. Even after Independence, India had the third largest Muslim population in the world, next to Pakistan and Indonesia.

At first, the present countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh were united as one country, but because it was so difficult to manage two tracts of land so far apart, in 1971, Pakistan was divided into Pakistan to the west of India, and Bangladesh to the east.

Another problem the Indians experienced was that there were many “princely states” within India. By the time of Independence, most of these kingdoms had agreed to become part of India, after their rulers were promised a degree of independence and healthy stipends.

Kashmir, with a mainly Muslim population, was ruled by a Hindu Maharaja. By October 1948, the Maharaja had not yet decided whether his kingdom would become part of India or Pakistan. At this time, a Pathan (Pakistani) army crossed into Kashmir in hopes of capturing Srinagar and annexing Kashmir. Before the army could reach Srinagar, however, the Indian army arrived and took the city. The Maharaja then decided to join India. After this episode, the first India-Pakistan war was fought. The Kashmir issue has been a major source of disagreement between the two countries ever since. At the present time, India and Pakistan are divided by a demarcation line (known as the Line of Actual Control). Neither side agrees what the actual border is or should be.
A Hindu fanatic assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, and the world grieved his death.

After Independence
India is currently the world’s largest democracy and is one of the top ten industrial powers. Half the people living in democratic countries in the world live in India.

Until recently, the Congress Party (I) has dominated Indian politics. Jawaharlal xe "Nehru, Jawaharlal" Nehru, the head of the Congress Party, became the first Prime Minister of the country, and ruled India until his death in 1964. He was an able and popular leader. At first, India accepted a foreign policy of non-alignment. In 1962, however, the Chinese army marched over the border into Assam and there was a short war, which China won. The war with China caused the loss of part of Ladakh (Aksai Chin) and a smaller area in the Northeastern part of India. These areas are still disputed between the two countries.
India also fought a war with Pakistan in 1965 over Kashmir.

In 1971, India supported Bangladesh in their fight to become a separate country from West Pakistan. Pakistan was originally divided into the present countries of Pakistan (West Pakistan) and Bangladesh (East Pakistan), both ruled by the same government. India attacked both West and East Pakistan on December 4. On December 15, Pakistan surrendered and Bangladesh became a separate country.

Nehru died in 1964. His daughter, Indira Gandhi, (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), then became Prime Minister in 1966. She declared a “state of emergency” in 1975 when her political opposition was gaining power and there was general unrest in the country. During this time, she had many of her political opponents imprisoned and the press censored. In 1977, Indira Gandhi thought she had enough of the people’s support to call a general election. The Janata People’s Party, a coalition of several parties, won the election and Morarji Desai became Prime Minister. The Janata party fell in late 1979. Indira Gandhi was reelected in 1980.

India of the 1980s and 1990s
Indira Gandhi’s son and political heir, Sanjiv, was killed in a plane crash. In 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards after she had sent the army to occupy the Golden Temple in Amritsar to capture Sikh militants, who were staying there. During the struggle, part of the temple complex was destroyed and desecrated. The Sikh militants wanted their own independent country, to be called Khalistan.

Mrs Gandhi’s son, Rajiv, formerly an Indian Airline pilot, was elected by an overwhelming majority as Prime Minister in December 1984. He encouraged foreign investment, modern technology, and reduced import restrictions. The Indian armed forces became involved in supporting the Sri Lanka government in the war against the Sri Lankan Tamils. Also, he faced the Bofors scandal, in which bribes were said to have been paid to members of the government to obtain a contract for heavy artillery guns from a Swedish company.

After the November 1989 elections, the Congress Party (I) held the largest number of Parliamentary seats, but the party was unable to form a government. The National Front Government, made up of five parties, including the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) formed the government under the leadership of VP Singh. This government did not last long and a new election was held. During the election campaign, while touring Tamil Nadu, Rajiv Gandhi, along with his assistants and some bystanders, was killed by a bomb carried by a young girl supporting the Tamil Tigers. After the assassination, the police cracked down and the leaders of the Tamil Tigers said to be responsible for the bombing were arrested.
Narasimha Rao then became head of the Congress Party (I) and led them to a victory in the next election.

In Ayodhya it was claimed that the Babri Masjid Mosque was built over the site of an old Rama Temple. In December 1992, Hindu fundamentalists destroyed the mosque, which caused rioting in cities all over India, killing several hundred people. After this incident, the Hindu fundamentalist party, the BJP, which at that time controlled the UP state government, started to gain more political power in other areas of India.
Over the last several years there has been an increase in guerrilla and terrorist activities in Kashmir. In 1995, six Westerners were kidnapped. One escaped and another was killed. What happened to the other four is still unknown. Pakistan is said to be helping the militants. Some Kashmiri militants are demanding independence from both India and Pakistan, and others want to become part of Pakistan.

There are also secessionist movements in other areas of India. The prime minister in 1996 authorized the new state, Uttarakhand, in northern Uttar Pradesh. Nepalis living in the Darjeeling region also want to form their own state, Gorkhaland.

In recent years, Punjab has become a peaceful place and the threat of terrorism has substantially decreased. In the February 1997 elections the Akali Dal-BJP alliance won a landslide victory.

Over the last couple of years, Hindu fundamentalist parties such as the BJP and Shiv Sena have gained considerable support while the Congress Party has lost support. In the 1996 election, the BJP received the largest amount of votes. The government formed by the BJP only lasted two weeks and was replaced by a coalition of thirteen parties called the United Front, led by HD Dev Gowda. In April 1997, Inder Kumar Gujral became Prime Minister.

In March 1998, the BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee formed a 13 party coalition with J. Jayalalitha as the Prime Minister. In May 1998, India conducted some nuclear weapon tests in the desert of Rajasthan, which brought complains from countries from all over the world. In return Pakistan also did a nuclear test. Many countries in the world reacted by withdrawing aid and putting sanctions on these two countries. In mid-1999 Sonia Gandhi became the head of the Congress Party.

At the present time the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is in charge of the National Democratic Alliance, which is made up of 20 political parties, which forms a majority in Parliament. The Prime Minister is Atal Behari Vajpayee of the BJP. The alliance was formed at the beginning of 2000. 

Ancient Temples in the South, but not the North
To understand Indian history is to understand why South India’s ancient and large temples have survived and the temples in the North have not. The Hindu kingdoms in the South were more united than the kingdoms in the North, and the South was not subject to centuries of Muslim rule. Muslim rulers often destroyed temples wherever they conquered. Aurangzeb was among the worst, destroying temples in the holy cities of Vrindavan, Varanasi, and in other places. It was because of his invasion that the original deities of Vrindavan were sent to other cities in India, and it was he who destroyed part of the Govindaji temple in Vrindavan. Maharaja Jai Singh II, a general in Aurangzeb’s army, whose ancestor built the Govindaji temple, was responsible for saving the deities.

To protect the Deities from Muslim desecration, priests would hide them in bushes or lakes. Not only were the temples and Deities destroyed, but often the Muslims would kill the priests. Therefore, after a priest had hidden a Deity, he would be killed or captured in the invasion, and the whereabouts of the deities lost.

The earliest temples in North and Central India are from the Gupta period 320-650 AD. Gupta period temples can be seen in Nachna, Rajasthan; Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh; Bhumara, Madhya Pradesh; and Deogarh, Uttar Pradesh.

Some of the first temples were rock-cut Buddhist cave temples. The caves temples at Ajanta date from about 200 BC to 650 AD.

The Pallavas of Kanchi, the Pandyas of Madurai, and the Chalukyas of Badami built the first major temples in South India. Some of the Badami temples were built between 450 and 466 AD. These temples include both free-standing and cave temples. The Rastrakutas of Malkhed came to power in the 8th century and are responsible for the Kailash Temple in Ellora.

Some of the temples in Aihole and Pattadakal in Karnataka were built between the 5th and 7th centuries by the Chalukya kings. The Huchimalligudi, Durga, and Lad Khan temples were all built in Aihole between 450 to 650 AD. Some of the Chalukyan temples are a combination of northern and southern styles.

The Pallavas (600-900 AD) built the Mamallapuram temples, such as the Shore Temple. They also built the Vaikuntha Perumal and Kailasanath Temple in Kanchipuram between 700 and 800 AD. They started the Dravidian school of temples, which are big and more complex stone temples with intricate sculptures. The earliest Dravidian temples are at Mamallapuram, located about 85 km south of Chennai, and at Kanchipuram, about 70km southwest of Chennai.

The Dravidian style was developed in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and evolved over a thousand-year period. It covered different dynasties—the Pallavas (600-900), Cholas (900-1150), Pandyas (1152-1350), Vijayanagar (1340-1565), and the Nayaks of Madurai (1550-1750). The Dravidian style has large towers, concentric walls, a main shrine, and large halls with up to a thousand pillars.

The Chola kings built temples in about seventy cities between 900 and 1200 AD that were even larger than previously existing temples. The two most famous temples built by the Chola kings are at Thanjavur (Tanjore) and Gangaikondacholapuram in Tamil Nadu.
The Pandyas did not build many new temples, but they improved and added to existing temples. They added extra walls and large elaborate gates with many ornamental sculptures, many-pillared halls, annexes to the shrines, and elaborate gateways.

The Hoysala kings built temples in the 12th and 13th century in southwest Karnataka. These temples have elaborate sculptures built as bas-reliefs into the stone. They also built the Chennakesava Temple in Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple in Halebid, and the 13th century Keshava Temple at Somnathpur (40km from Mysore).
The Vijayanagar kings (1350-1565) expanded many temples and built the Pampapati, Vitthala, and many other temples in Hampi. The Nayaks of Madurai (1600-1750) made the gopurams even larger and more intricate, and added pillared corridors within the temple walls.

In the North, many of the ancient temples (built from 750 to 1250) were destroyed by Muslims. Some of the chief temples still remaining are in Orissa. These include the Jagannath Temple in Puri, the Lingaraja Temple in Bhubaneswar, and the Surya Temple in Konark. The Chandellas built the famous temples in Khajuraho between 950 and 1050. There were important temples built in the 10th and 11th centuries in Rajasthan and 11th to 13th centuries in Gujarat. There are some interesting temples built with terra-cotta tiles in Vishnupur in Bengal. Temples were built in the 16th century by the followers of Sri Chaitanya in Vrindavan, including the Govindaji and Madana Mohan Temples.

History of the Vedic Literature
According to the Vedas, Indian civilization has existed for millions of years. Modern history dates back to the time of Buddha’s death (483 BC). Archaeologists and anthropologists cannot accept the Vedic conclusion that civilization flourished in India long before fifty thousand years ago, which is the date that scientists give as the earliest possible appearance of Homo Sapiens (human beings) on earth. The Vedic scriptures state that the Vedic literature was recorded about 5,000 years ago, at the beginning of Kali-yuga. These literatures describe the activities of sages and yogis who lived millions of years ago.

The earliest Indus civilizations accepted by modern historians are the cities of Harappa and Mohenjaro, now located in Pakistan. According to modern Indian history books, the Dravidians, indigent residents of India, were invaded by Aryan barbarians, who brought with them their tales of Indra (Rig Veda). This account enjoys wide circulation in the history books, but it is by no means scientifically conclusive. It is a hypothetical creation set forth to explain what would otherwise be inexplicable to their frame of accepted knowledge.

According to the Vedic acaryas (teachers), the oral transmission of the Vedas began simultaneously with the cosmic creation, when God spoke the Vedic knowledge to the first living being, Brahma. Vyasadeva, the literary incarnation of the Supreme Person, wrote down the Vedas at the beginning of the Kali millennium, about 5,000 years ago.

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides