Book Review #98: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History By Sanjeev Sanyal

Title: The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History

Author: Sanjeev Sanyal

Publishers: Penguin India

Genre: Geo-political History/History/Maritime History

Pages: 374 (Paperback)

Source: Personal Copy

Being a regular reader of the history I was fascinated by this book by the author Sanjeev Sanyal. Having read his previous book "Land of the Seven Rivers" I was all eager to read this new book. In his previous book, he talked about the seven important rivers of India including the mighty Saraswati River. The Land of seven rivers was summed up in one line as “Seven Rivers (Sapth Sindhu), One Country, Five Millennia, Startling History”.

Asian histories have been rendered in a biased manner since time immemorial. As a famous saying that goes, until an animal has its own history, the history of the hunting will always glorify the hunter. If we take any history curriculum in Indian education system, we can read leaps and bounds of Mughul Empire, the British regime, the Sultanates and such similar accounts. 

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to read the histories of Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas in greater detail and their glories have been limited to few pages here and there. This book, one of a kind in its genre, breaks that stupor and gives us a riveting account of how the Indian Ocean has shaped the human history. Indian Ocean is itself a big mystery. It holds many unresolved or undiscovered history that is hidden deep into its core. Author Sanjeev Sanyal tried to uncover this in this vast researched and well articulated book and succeeded in satiating his readers.

The book opens up by a fascinating tale of how the Pallava dynasty has traced an heir to their Kingdom when the erstwhile King, Parameshwara Verman II died in 731 CE. A delegation of Brahmin scholars, which travelled across the Indian Ocean to the far ends of Cambodia, and got back an heir that traced his roots to the Pallava dynasty from five long generations ago!! Thus, the reign of Nandi Verman II has started.

Hundreds of questions pop up as we read further through the book. For example:

Why did Vasco Da Gama worship in a Hindu temple when he set in India for the first time?

Why there are fossil remain of marine animals have been found in the Himalayas?

How come the Parsi community of India embraced the Guajrati culture so effortlessly?

How did the Sinhalese come to Sri Lanka?

What was the connection of the Sri Vijaya Empire with the Chinese?

How did the world’s second Mosque (King Cheraman Perumal) have been built in Kerala, India? What was the motive behind it?

How did Portuguese and Dutch have taken advantage in conquering parts of India?

How come we see oriental faces of engravings by Pallavas?

And so on…

The Ocean of Churn begins its journey even before the formation of the Indian Ocean. It talks about the super continent called Gondwana (This name is derived from the Gond tribe of the central India) that existed more than 270 million years ago and the mighty Saraswati River and how it dried up due to the tectonic plate shifts, how the Himalaya has been formed, and how the races have been migrated from India to outside world. This book traces the history through the Ocean way. How people set up its civilizations, how their trade hub got established, what was their commercial aspects, how they dealt with various traders inside and outside their territory and so on.

Sanjeev Sanyal views this history as Complex Adaptive System. Given his background in Economics, where he considers multiple factors act upon a system to determine the direction it takes. From Harrappan times, Indians have been trading with the world in many ways. Maritime trading is the major aspect during those times when land routes were hardly discovered. The powerful Chola king, Rajendra Chola made a naval attack on the Sri Vijaya Kingdom of Sumatra by 1025 is one such example. Chola Empire was one of the powerful empires in the entire South Asia region during that time. There were a major geo-political-economic alliances or rivalries between Indians, Chinese and the Sri Vijaya Kingdom.

Kerala being the hub of the maritime trade have witnessed a vast amount of geo-political-economic tradeoffs. As a testimony to those, even today in Kerala, we have the world’s second Mosque and India’s first mosque (Cheraman Perumal Mosque) built by the king Cherman Perumal by the orders of Mohammed the prophet himself in 629 AD. We also get to see the memorial of St. Thomas (doubting Thomas fame), a disciple of Jesus, who visited Kerala via sea route.

Overall, this book is a well researched one. It starts right from the origin of India Ocean due to the tectonic plate shifts and ends right at the transformation of Bombay to Mumbai with the reclamation of land over the Ocean. This book is full of rich details of all Kingdoms that throve around the Indian Ocean, Indian coastline, and several islands of the Indian Ocean that also had cultural trade ties with India and its Kingdoms.

Author personally visited several of these places that he mentions in his book. It shows what kind of painstaking research that he has put in this book. It is extremely informative and knowledge enhancing. As the author himself remarks at the end of the book “A systematic bias I have found in the existing literature is the preference given to the writers and sources from outside the continents.” This is evidently true, as we are fed with the histories that are written by mentally enslaved minds. It is time to look through a new perspective and stop looking towards the west for our recognition. India was and is an ancient lands with many millions years of history. Authors like Sanjeev Sanyal should be encouraged by reading these kinds of books.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #7 - Land of the Seven Rivers - A Brief History of India's Geography - Sanjeev Sanyal

Land of The Seven Rivers - Sanjeev Sanyal

I have read several books on India's History in past. There was nothing special that those books attracted. However, this one book "Land of The Seven Rivers" by the author Sanjeev Sanyal fills that gap and takes one to the cleaners.
The author has personally researched on various historical facts by travelling the length and breadths of India and other countries about the traces of its History. With a clean rendition and the pace it gives while reading the book makes anyone to read chapters after chapters. One disclaimer should be given beforehand, this should not be read in one single sitting, rather, it should be read in slow and steady manner. Since, it takes a while to digest the facts after facts that one encounters.

 If the review can be put in one single line, it is "Saptha-Sindhu (Seven Rivers), One country, Five Millennia, Startling History and one awesome book". 

Sanjeev also had authored another book, "India Renaissance: India's rise after a thousand years of decline" that's his first book, which I haven't read yet. But, it is sure in my reading cart.

Let me put it straight before going to the actual review, some of the eminent self attested historians, seculars and progressive thinkers are not going to like this book. This hits straight into their face like a missile. This book is one hell of an attempt that tries to BUST many beliefs that held strongly in traditional and regular interpretations of Indian History. One such example that the author tries to set in the first 20 pages of the book itself is:

"The white Aryans are not some Indo-European invaders that came from far away land and shooed away the illiterate Dravidians and sat and wrote Vedas. And, RIGVEDA is rather associated with our Harappan Civilization". 

I am quite sure that, this will be the burning moment for some of the eminent personalities who had attested themselves of learning about the depths and depths of Indian History.

The story narration is also quite different in this book. As the title of the book says, it is a story of the seven rivers OR sapth-sindhu. Instead of tracing the history through Kings, Kingdoms, Dynasty, War, Robberies, Attrocities, Conversions, Killings, Pillages, etc.. This book attempts to trace the history through the geography of the land and how it developped over time to become what is India is today. The one takeway from this book is, the generally held notion of India, and makes it clear that India is a country of ancient memory.

The book is a complete history of the formation of the India through the Vedic times till the new age political formation. It starts with the breakaway of the big supercontinent GONDWANA, introduction of the plate tectonics, and the much talked river Saraswati getting dried up, thereby forcing the population to move out their territories and expanding the Indianization to the outside world and how India collided with Asia, etc..
The author also attempts to give the examples of the wartime of Mahabharatha and the remaining places of Kurukshetra, Indraprasta and other related towns and the excavations that is being conducted on these places to extract more. He also gives examples of Ramayana, and the path that Ram, Laxman and Seetha matha took when they started their exile journey from Ayodhya to Lanka, crossing the mid India, Southern India, The construction of the Ramasethu Bridge (Adam's Bridge) and also attempts to give the exact location of the Kishkinda, the capital city of Monkey Kingdom (Vaali/Sugreev) place, etc..

The reading just takes you away in a fantastic journey forcing the readers to imagine a picture of all these events and how the country has formed and all the events that took place.

The book also makes a strong point on the lost river Saraswati. And the civilization that was flourised along the banks of this river and these people might be the root of our Initial Indus Civilization. The author combines not only the geographical details, but also, the genetic factor (The genes R1a1) to evaluate the question and derive that the Saraswati river must have flown alongside the Indus, thus making this river as the center for our civilization. Both sides of the arguement about the Aryans have been thorougly examined with the conclusion that the Aryans can have originated only from India being supported by the genetic evidence, which settles most of issues once and for all. This time frame also covers Sudas, Bharata Tribe and what happened to them as well as the role of the Vashista. It also goes onto provide the link between the Avesthans (Zorastrians), Iranians, Indonesians, etc.

There are chapters that goes with the title "Age of Lions" and "Mauryan Empire" which traces the development, origin and demise of the Mauryan Empire. The book also makes a strong arguement about how the lions were completely ignored and tigers have almost attained a place in every historical events, etc.. Surely, this section of Lions is a fascinating read.

The reading journey takes us to the transformation of the medival India to the time of Moghuls and Arab invaders. The excellent section comes when the development of Delhi (Old and New) throughout these Arab and Mogul Invaders rule. The book marks a profound point on the ruins of the Delhi and the exact location, description of those places.

The attempt to get the map of India through Trignometric methods for over 60 years is one of an awesome section that anyone reads in this book. The book also covers the growth of the railways network in India and hardships that went through building this. The book goes on to give the facts and figures of how the princely states like Junagarh, Hyderabad, Kashmir were inducted into India. And, how Bangladesh (Then EAST PAKISTAN) have got their Independence with the help of India, following the emergency rule for about 1 and half year, every small detail has been covered.

The book also emphasizes that Indians had a profound sense of History and have exhibited a unity. Some of the examples are like this:

"An edict by Emperor Ashoka from the 3rd century BC, is one of the 2 columns that Feroz Shah Tugluq got transported to his city with great care".

The Iron pillar stands in front of Qutub Minar complex in New Delhi is made of "almost pure Iron and yet has not rusted despite being exposed to elements of environment for about 15 centuries. The inscription on this pillar is dedicated to the Hindu god vishnu and tells of the exploits and conquests by a king called Chandra" .

A strong reason why India remained a cultural subcontinet superpower for millennials has to do something with India's ability to cope up with different cultures, race and practices. Not only religious and intellectual innovation has been witnessed in this age. But also, "the Ayurveda", Susrutha (The first sophisticated surgeon in the world) who not only mastered in conducting operations, but also, devised a fully sophisticated set of "Surgical Instruments and Procedures". Unfortunately, no one remembers this great personality these days, he was lost long ago in the medival era.

India has also seen the first learning center's of world that ever have happened. It is Takshasila - destroyed by Huns in 5th century CE. And Nalanda - destroyed by Bhuktiyar Khilji in 1193 CE which also accomponied the murder of thousands of monks. No world class universities or learning center's have emerged in India after this wreckage.

The book also enlightens us about the southern India especially the HAMPI, the cultural capital city of VIJAYANAGARA empire. Being considered as cultural heritage by UNESCO, this is one of a awesome city that was built during those times and it will certainly takes more than a week to completely evaluate and visit every temples, structures, roads and palaces. The epic structure of VIJAYANAGARA empire god VIRUPAKSHA, is still there in vandalised state, witnessing the ever painful barbaric attack by Moghul and Arab Invaders. "At its height, it was considered to be one of the largest cities of the world in those times". This whole city was destroyed in the battle of THALIKOTA during 1565. Thereby ending an ever growing, flourished kingdom to ashes.

Last but not least, the author also tells us that, Indians obsession for the fair complexion as depicted by our commercial and television media is a false notion. Rather, it has been observed that many of our prominent gods Krishna, Rama are all dark complexioned characters.

Overall, in India's civilizational progress, was brutally turned into a decline mode for thousand of years. Turkic, Arab, Mughal invaders were all somewhat successful in ruling us for decades after decades. But, sadly they are unable to contribute any significant notables like literary artifacts, in music, in monuments, in counstructing univertisites, etc.. rather, their main motto was to pillage this country and make it appear as what it is today. Without any doubt, INDIA was the richest country interms of economic reforms, in cultural aspects, in science, astronomy, universities, etc..

This book is a fascinating read. It keeps its pace from page 1 till the end. This book for sure is a sugar candy for those history buffs who are open to receive awesome knowledge and facts. Even the writing style in engaging and lucid. It is a difficult task to cover entire 6000 to 7000 years of history in just 250 odd pages. The book contains a potful of information, ancedotes, descriptions and details that comes as a surprise for anyone. And makes this book as a collectable jewel item.

My Rating: 5/5