Pontic Steppe
107-626: Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Tocharians or Tokharians ( US : / t oʊ ˈ k ɛər i ə n ˌ - ˈ k ɑːr -/ toh- KAIR -ee-ən, - KAR - ; UK : / t ɒ ˈ k ɑːr i ə n / to- KAR -ee-ən ) were speakers of
214-620: A Central Asian Buddhist manuscript from the late 8th century states that it was translated into Old Turkic from Sanskrit, via a twγry language. In 1907, Emil Sieg and Friedrich W. K. Müller proposed that twγry was a name for the newly-discovered language of the Turpan area. Sieg and Müller, reading this name as toxrï , connected it with the ethnonym Tócharoi ( Ancient Greek : Τόχαροι , Ptolemy VI, 11, 6, 2nd century AD), itself taken from Indo-Iranian (cf. Old Persian tuxāri- , Khotanese ttahvāra , and Sanskrit tukhāra ), and proposed
321-624: A Turkic language – settled in the region and founded the Kingdom of Qocho that ruled the Tarim Basin. The peoples of the Tarim city-states intermixed with the Uyghurs, whose Old Uyghur language spread through the region. The Tocharian languages are believed to have become extinct during the 9th century. Around the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologists recovered a number of manuscripts from oases in
428-507: A collection of Tamil and later Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti , worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of tutelary deity , sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Ancient Tamil grammatical works Tolkappiyam ,
535-645: A derivation meaning "borderers, marchers". One of the Tocharian A texts have ārśi-käntwā as a name for their own language, so that ārśi may have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible. Tocharian kings apparently gave themselves the title Ñäktemts soy (in Tocharian B), an equivalent of the title Devaputra ("Son of God") of the Kushans . The Tocharian languages are known from around 7600 documents dating from about 400 to 1200 AD, found at 30 sites in
642-530: A half-human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger, which may be a reference to the Sumerian myth of such a monster created by goddess Aruru to fight Gilgamesh . Some seals show a man wearing a hat with two horns and a plant sitting on a throne with animals surrounding him. Some scholars theorize that this was a predecessor to Shiva wearing a hat worn by some Sumerian divine beings and kings. In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations,
749-407: A hitherto unknown branch of Indo-European, now known as Tocharian: Prakrit documents from 3rd-century Krorän and Niya on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain loanwords and names that appear to come from a closely related language, referred to as Tocharian C . The discovery of Tocharian upset some theories about the relations of Indo-European languages and revitalized their study. In
856-457: A king was considered to be divine by nature and possessed religious significance. The king was 'the representative of God on earth' and lived in a "koyil", which means the "residence of a god". The Modern Tamil word for temple is koil . Titual worship was also given to kings. Modern words for god like "kō" ("king"), "iṟai" ("emperor"), and "āṇḍavar" ("conqueror") now primarily refer to gods. These elements were incorporated later into Hinduism like
963-503: A language of late antiquity contemporary with Gothic , Classical Armenian , and Primitive Irish . The existence of the Tocharian languages and alphabet was not even suspected until archaeological exploration of the Tarim Basin by Aurel Stein in the early 20th century brought to light fragments of manuscripts in an unknown language, dating from the 6th to 8th centuries AD. It soon became clear that these fragments were actually written in two distinct but related languages belonging to
1070-655: A loanword etymologically connected to the Turkic sun goddess Gun Ana . Besides this, they might have also worshipped a lunar deity ( meñ- ) and an earth one ( keṃ- ). The murals found in the Tarim Basin , especially those of the Kizil Caves , mostly depict Jataka stories, avadanas , and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of the Hinayana school of
1177-529: A lord of animals; and often depicted as having three eyes. The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal , after Pashupati (lord of all animals), an epithet of Shiva. While Marshall's work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra
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#17330849252101284-439: A result, it has been suggested that Tocharian A was a liturgical language , no longer spoken natively, while Tocharian B was the spoken language of the entire area. The hypothesized relationship of Tocharian A and B as liturgical and spoken forms, respectively, is sometimes compared with the relationship between Latin and the modern Romance languages , or Classical Chinese and Mandarin . However, in both of these latter cases,
1391-522: A retrospective view from a much later Hindu perspective. An early and influential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu interpretations of archaeological evidence from the Harrapan sites was that of John Marshall , who in 1931 identified the following as prominent features of the Indus religion: a Great Male God and a Mother Goddess; deification or veneration of animals and plants; symbolic representation of
1498-517: A scholar of Tocharian, presented a decipherment of 10 texts written in the Kharoṣṭhī script . Schmidt claimed that these texts were written in a third Tocharian language he called Lolanisch . He also suggested that the language was closer to Tocharian B than to Tocharian A. In 2019 a group of linguists led by Georges Pinault and Michaël Peyrot convened in Leiden to examine Schmidt's translations against
1605-501: A subject of debate among scholars. While Radhakrishnan , Oldenberg and Neumann were convinced of Upanishadic influence on the Buddhist canon, Eliot and Thomas highlighted the points where Buddhism was opposed to Upanishads. Buddhism may have been influenced by some Upanishadic ideas, it however discarded their orthodox tendencies. In Buddhist texts Buddha is presented as rejecting avenues of salvation as "pernicious views". Jainism
1712-627: A unitary view of the universe with 'God' (Brahman) seen as immanent and transcendent in the forms of Ishvara and Brahman . This post-Vedic systems of thought, along with the Upanishads and later texts like the epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata ), is a major component of modern Hinduism. The ritualistic traditions of Vedic religion are preserved in the conservative Śrauta tradition. Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout
1819-477: A variety of Tocharian, dubbed Tocharian C or Kroränian, which may have been spoken by at least some of the local populace. Burrow's theory is widely accepted, but the evidence is meagre and inconclusive, and some scholars favour alternative explanations. Most of the Tocharian inscriptions are based on Buddhist monastic texts, which suggests that the Tocharians largely embraced Buddhism . The pre-Buddhist beliefs of
1926-530: Is a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion is very different from what we generally call Hindu religion – at least as much as Old Hebrew religion is from medieval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion is treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism." The rishis , the composers of the hymns of the Rigveda , were considered inspired poets and seers. The mode of worship was the performance of Yajna , sacrifices which involved sacrifice and sublimation of
2033-732: Is attested only in Kucha. There are also the middle ("classical") and the late stage. A third Tocharian language was first suggested by Thomas Burrow in the 1930s, while discussing 3rd-century documents from Krorän (Loulan) and Niya . The texts were written in Gandhari Prakrit , but contained loanwords of evidently Tocharian origin, such as kilme ("district"), ṣoṣthaṃga ("tax collector"), and ṣilpoga ("document"). This hypothetical language later became generally known as Tocharian C; it has also sometimes been called Kroränian or Krorainic. In papers published posthumously in 2018, Klaus T. Schmidt,
2140-585: Is evident, many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language , the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans, which became more evident over time with sacred iconography, traditions, philosophy, flora, and fauna that went on to influence Hinduism, Buddhism, Charvaka, Sramana, and Jainism. Throughout Tamilakam ,
2247-414: Is known as the Vedic period , which lasted from roughly 1750 to 500 BCE. The Vedic Period is most significant for the composition of the four Vedas, Brahmanas and the older Upanishads (both presented as discussions on the rituals, mantras and concepts found in the four Vedas), which today are some of the most important canonical texts of Hinduism, and are the codification of much of what developed into
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#17330849252102354-404: Is now believed to be mistaken, "Tocharian" remains the usual term for these languages. The discovered manuscripts record two closely related languages, called Tocharian A (also East Tocharian or Turfanian ) and Tocharian B ( West Tocharian or Kuchean ). The subject matter of the texts suggests that Tocharian A was more archaic and used as a Buddhist liturgical language, while Tocharian B
2461-629: Is quite distinct from the Tocharian languages. Nevertheless, "Tocharian" remained the standard term for the languages of the Tarim Basin manuscripts and for the people who produced them. A few scholars argue that the Yuezhi were originally speakers of Tocharian who later adopted the Bactrian language. The name of Kucha in Tocharian B was Kuśi , with adjectival form kuśiññe . The word may be derived from Proto-Indo-European *keuk "shining, white". The Tocharian B word akeññe may have referred to people of Agni, with
2568-560: Is the Avestan language term (corresponding to Vedic language ṛta ) for a concept of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine. The term "dharma" was already used in Brahmanical thought, where it was conceived as an aspect of Rta. Major philosophers of this era were Rishis Narayana, Kanva, Rishaba , Vamadeva , and Angiras . During the Middle Vedic period, the mantras of
2675-524: Is the ultimate foundation of everything; it is "the supreme", although this is not to be understood in a static sense. [...] It is the expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in everything...." The term rta is inherited from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion , the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) scriptures. " Asha "
2782-718: The Arśi-Kuči , Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean languages, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants of the Tarim Basin , the Tocharians . The languages are known from manuscripts dating from the 5th to the 8th century AD, which were found in oasis cities on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (now part of Xinjiang in Northwest China) and the Lop Desert . The discovery of these languages in
2889-610: The Vedas , as well as the Agamas of Dravidian origin. The period of the composition, redaction, and commentary of these texts is known as the Vedic period , which lasted from roughly 1750 to 500 BCE. The philosophical portions of the Vedas were summarized in Upanishads , which are commonly referred to as Vedānta , variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the object,
2996-522: The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as a place for ritual purification. The funerary practices of the Harappan civilisation is marked by its diversity with evidence of supine burial; fractional burial in which the body is reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to the elements before final interment; and even cremation. The documented history of Indian religions begins with
3103-589: The Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic. Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music. The religion and belief system of
3210-612: The Little Vehicle of the school of the Sarvāstivādas (zhuyiqieyoubu). Their doctrine (teaching of Sūtras) and their rules of discipline (principles of the Vinaya) are like those of India, and those who read them use the same (originals)." The route by which speakers of Indo-European languages reached the Tarim Basin is uncertain. A leading contender is the Afanasievo culture , who occupied
3317-541: The Sarvastivadas . When the Chinese Monk Xuanzang visited Kucha in 630 AD, he received the favours of the Tocharian king Suvarnadeva, the son and successor of Suvarnapushpa , whom he described as a believer of Hinayana Buddhism. In the account of his travel to Kucha (屈支国) he stated that "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to
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3424-565: The Shirenzigou site on the eastern edge of Dzungaria 20–80% Yamnaya-like ancestry, lending support to the hypothesis of a migration from Afanasievo into Dzungaria, which is just north of the Tarim Basin. According to archaeologist Alexey Kovalev, the Chemurchek culture (2750-1900 BCE), an Altaic culture with many similarities with cultures of Western Europe and especially Southern France in burial and statuary styles, may have been associated with
3531-532: The Tocharian languages , Indo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from around AD 400 to 1200, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinjiang , China ). The name "Tocharian" was given to these languages in the early 20th century by scholars who identified their speakers with a people known in ancient Greek sources as the Tókharoi ( Latin : Tochari ), who inhabited Bactria from
3638-636: The Uyghurs , expelled from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz , moved into the Tarim Basin. The theory is supported by the discovery of translations of Tocharian texts into Uyghur. Some modern Chinese words may ultimately derive from a Tocharian or related source, e.g. Old Chinese * mjit ( 蜜 ; mì ) "honey", from Proto-Tocharian * ḿət(ə) (where * ḿ is palatalized ; cf. Tocharian B mit ), cognate with Old Church Slavonic медъ (transliterated: medŭ ) (meaning "honey"), and English mead . A colophon to
3745-580: The Vedas ). The older Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the Self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Mundaka launches the most scathing attack on the ritual by comparing those who value sacrifice with an unsafe boat that is endlessly overtaken by old age and death. Scholars believe that Parsva ,
3852-453: The historical Vedic religion , the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryans , which were collected and later redacted into the Samhitas (usually known as the Vedas ), four canonical collections of hymns or mantras composed in archaic Sanskrit . These texts are the central shruti (revealed) texts of Hinduism . The period of the composition, redaction, and commentary of these texts
3959-512: The religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent . These religions, which include Buddhism , Hinduism , Jainism , and Sikhism , are also classified as Eastern religions . Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India , they constitute a wide range of religious communities, and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent. Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in
4066-492: The wave model of Johannes Schmidt , suggesting that the satem isogloss represents a linguistic innovation in the central part of the Proto-Indo-European home range, and the centum languages along the eastern and the western peripheries did not undergo that change. Several scholars identify the ancestors of the Tocharians with the Afanasievo culture of South Siberia ( c. 3300–2500 BC), an early eastern offshoot of
4173-588: The "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods" periodisation. An elaborate periodisation may be as follows: The earliest religion followed by the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, including those of the Indus Valley and Ganges Valley , was likely local animism that did not have missionaries . Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings such as at Bhimbetka , depicting dances and rituals. Neolithic agriculturalists inhabiting
4280-414: The 19th century, it was thought that the division between centum and satem languages was a simple west–east division, with centum languages in the west. The theory was undermined in the early 20th century by the discovery of Hittite , a centum language in a relatively eastern location, and Tocharian, which was a centum language despite being the easternmost branch. The result was a new hypothesis, following
4387-480: The 1st millennium BC. Common Indo-European vocabulary retained in Tocharian includes words for herding, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, textiles, farming, wheat, gold, silver, and wheeled vehicles. Prakrit documents from 3rd century Krorän , Andir and Niya on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain around 100 loanwords and 1000 proper names that cannot be traced to an Indic or Iranian source. Thomas Burrow suggested that they come from
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4494-552: The 23rd Jain tirthankara lived during this period in the 9th century BCE. Jainism and Buddhism belong to the śramaṇa traditions. These religions rose into prominence in 700–500 BCE in the Magadha kingdom., reflecting "the cosmology and anthropology of a much older, pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern India", and were responsible for the related concepts of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). The shramana movements challenged
4601-632: The 23rd Tirthankara, was a historical figure. The Vedas are believed to have documented a few Tirthankaras and an ascetic order similar to the shramana movement. Buddhism was historically founded by Siddhartha Gautama , a Kshatriya prince-turned-ascetic, and was spread beyond India through missionaries. It later experienced a decline in India, but survived in Nepal and Sri Lanka , and remains more widespread in Southeast and East Asia . Gautama Buddha , who
4708-497: The 2nd century BC. This identification is now generally considered erroneous, but the name "Tocharian" remains the most common term for the languages and their speakers. Their actual ethnic name is unknown, although they may have referred to themselves as the Agni , Kuči , and Krorän or as the Agniya and Kuchiya known from Sanskrit texts. Agricultural communities first appeared in
4815-536: The 2nd century BCE due to his significant patronage of the religion. His reign is considered a period of growth and influence for the religion, although Jainism had flourished for centuries before and continued to develop in prominence after his time. The early Dravidian religion constituted of non- Vedic form of Hinduism in that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic . The Agamas are non- vedic in origin and have been dated either as post-vedic texts. or as pre-vedic oral compositions. The Agamas are
4922-861: The Altai region to the north between 3300 and 2500 BC. The Afanasievo culture resulted from an eastern offshoot of the Yamnaya culture , originally based in the Pontic steppe north of the Caucasus Mountains . The Afanasevo culture (c. 3500–2500 BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the Central Asian steppe yet predates the specifically Indo-Iranian -associated Andronovo culture (c. 2000–900 BC). J. P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair argued that
5029-511: The Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley civilisation , which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE (mature period 2600–1900 BCE), had an early urbanized culture which predates the Vedic religion. The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion , the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryan peoples , which were collected and later redacted into
5136-467: The Indus Valley lacks any monumental palaces, even though excavated cities indicate that the society possessed the requisite engineering knowledge. This may suggest that religious ceremonies, if any, may have been largely confined to individual homes, small temples, or the open air. Several sites have been proposed by Marshall and later scholars as possibly devoted to religious purpose, but at present only
5243-450: The Indus Valley people has received considerable attention, especially from the view of identifying precursors to deities and religious practices of Indian religions that later developed in the area. However, due to the sparsity of evidence, which is open to varying interpretations, and the fact that the Indus script remains undeciphered, the conclusions are partly speculative and largely based on
5350-636: The Proto-Tokharians. According to glotto-chronological data, proto-Tokharians must have migrated to the east around the same period, and their Western Indo-European language is closest to proto-Germanic and proto-Italic, corresponding to the broad geographical area encompassing southern France where the style most similar to those of the Chemurchek culture have been identified. The language of the Chemurchek/Proto-Tokharians may have originated from
5457-537: The Tarim Basin was first settled by Proto-Tocharian -speakers from an eastern offshoot of the Afanasievo culture, who migrated to the south and occupied the northern and eastern edges of the basin. The early eastward expansion of the Yamnaya culture circa 3300 BC is enough to account for the isolation of the Tocharian languages from Indo-Iranian linguistic innovations like satemization . Michaël Peyrot argues that several of
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#17330849252105564-421: The Tarim Basin written in two closely related but previously unknown Indo-European languages , which were easy to read because they used a close variation of the already deciphered Indian Middle-Brahmi script . These languages were designated in similar fashion by their geographical neighbours: Friedrich W. K. Müller was the first to propose a characterization for the newly discovered languages. Müller called
5671-504: The Tocharians are largely unknown, but several Chinese goddesses are similar to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European sun goddess and the dawn goddess , which implies that the Chinese were influenced by the pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tocharians when they traveled on trade routes which were located in Tocharian territories. Tocharian B has a noun swāñco derived from the name of the Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, while Tocharian A has koṃ ,
5778-467: The Vedic and Upanishadic concepts of soul (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman). In 6th century BCE, the Shramnic movement matured into Jainism and Buddhism and was responsible for the schism of Indian religions into two main philosophical branches of astika, which venerates Veda (e.g., six orthodox schools of Hinduism) and nastika (e.g., Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka, etc.). However, both branches shared
5885-614: The Vedic religion and Hindu religions". The late Vedic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE) marks the beginning of the Upanisadic or Vedantic period. This period heralded the beginning of much of what became classical Hinduism, with the composition of the Upanishads , later the Sanskrit epics , still later followed by the Puranas . Upanishads form the speculative-philosophical basis of classical Hinduism and are known as Vedanta (conclusion of
5992-456: The Yajurveda and the older Brahmana texts were composed. The Brahmans became powerful intermediairies. Historical roots of Jainism in India is traced back to 9th-century BC with the rise of Parshvanatha and his non-violent philosophy. The Vedic religion evolved into Hinduism and Vedanta , a religious path considering itself the 'essence' of the Vedas, interpreting the Vedic pantheon as
6099-498: The core beliefs of Hinduism. Some modern Hindu scholars use the "Vedic religion" synonymously with "Hinduism". According to Sundararajan, Hinduism is also known as the Vedic religion. Other authors state that the Vedas contain "the fundamental truths about Hindu Dharma" which is called "the modern version of the ancient Vedic Dharma" The Arya Samaj is recognize the Vedic religion as true Hinduism. Nevertheless, according to Jamison and Witzel ... to call this period Vedic Hinduism
6206-535: The early 20th century contradicted the formerly prevalent idea of an east–west division of the Indo-European language family as centum and satem languages , and prompted reinvigorated study of the Indo-European family. Scholars studying these manuscripts in the early 20th century identified their authors with the Tokharoi , a name used in ancient sources for people of Bactria ( Tokharistan ). Although this identification
6313-592: The evidence for Marshall's hypothesis to be "terribly robust". Some of the baetyls interpreted by Marshall to be sacred phallic representations are now thought to have been used as pestles or game counters instead, while the ring stones that were thought to symbolise yoni were determined to be architectural features used to stand pillars, although the possibility of their religious symbolism cannot be eliminated. Many Indus Valley seals show animals, with some depicting them being carried in processions, while others show chimeric creations . One seal from Mohen-jodaro shows
6420-521: The family, recently revised to Agni-Kuči , but this name has not achieved widespread usage. Tocharian is documented in manuscript fragments, mostly from the 8th century (with a few earlier ones) that were written on palm leaves, wooden tablets, and Chinese paper , preserved by the extremely dry climate of the Tarim Basin. Samples of the language have been discovered at sites in Kucha and Karasahr , including many mural inscriptions. Most of attested Tocharian
6527-429: The figure as a deity, its association with the water buffalo, and its posture as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too far. Despite the criticisms of Marshall's association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, it has been interpreted as the Tirthankara Rishabha by Jains and Vilas Sangave or an early Buddha by Buddhists. Historians like Heinrich Zimmer , Thomas McEvilley are of
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#17330849252106634-439: The fire was believed to reach God. Central concepts in the Vedas are Satya and Rta . Satya is derived from Sat , the present participle of the verbal root as , "to be, to exist, to live". Sat means "that which really exists [...] the really existent truth; the Good", and Sat-ya means "is-ness". Rta , "that which is properly joined; order, rule; truth", is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates
6741-462: The havana sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire, accompanied by the singing of Samans and 'mumbling' of Yajus , the sacrificial mantras. The sublime meaning of the word yajna is derived from the Sanskrit verb yaj, which has a three-fold meaning of worship of deities (devapujana), unity (saògatikaraña), and charity (dána). An essential element was the sacrificial fire – the divine Agni – into which oblations were poured, as everything offered into
6848-492: The highest purpose of the Veda". The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, five of the eleven principal Upanishads were composed in all likelihood before 6th century BCE, and contain the earliest mentions of yoga and moksha . The śramaṇa period between 800 and 200 BCE marks a "turning point between the Vedic Hinduism and Puranic Hinduism". The Shramana movement, an ancient Indian religious movement parallel to but separate from Vedic tradition, often defied many of
6955-477: The history of India, namely the Hindu, Muslim, and British periods. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, medieval, and modern periods", although this periodization has also received criticism. Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu-Muslim-British periods of Indian history gives too much weight to "ruling dynasties and foreign invasions", neglecting
7062-523: The languages " Tocharian " (German Tocharisch ), linking this toxrï (Tωγry, "Togari") with the ethnonym Tókharoi ( Ancient Greek : Τόχαροι ) applied by Strabo to one of the " Scythian " tribes "from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes " that overran the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (present day Afghanistan ) in the second half of the 2nd century BC. This term also appears in Indo-Iranian languages ( Sanskrit Tushara / Tukhāra , Old Persian tuxāri- , Khotanese ttahvāra ), and became
7169-991: The legendary marriage of Shiva to Queen Mīnātchi who ruled Madurai or Wanji-ko , a god who later merged into Indra . Tolkappiyar refers to the Three Crowned Kings as the "Three Glorified by Heaven". In the Dravidian-speaking South, the concept of divine kingship led to the assumption of major roles by state and temple. Tocharian language Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Tocharian (sometimes Tokharian ) languages ( US : / t oʊ ˈ k ɛər i ə n ˌ - ˈ k ɑːr -/ toh- KAIR -ee-ən, - KAR - ; UK : / t ɒ ˈ k ɑːr i ə n / to- KAR -ee-ən ), also known as
7276-463: The liturgical language is the linguistic ancestor of the spoken language, whereas no such relationship holds between Tocharian A and B. In fact, from a phonological perspective Tocharian B is significantly more conservative than Tocharian A, and serves as the primary source for reconstructing Proto-Tocharian. Only Tocharian B preserves the following Proto-Tocharian features: stress distinctions, final vowels, diphthongs, and o vs. e distinction. In turn,
7383-415: The loss of final vowels in Tocharian A has led to the loss of certain Proto-Tocharian categories still found in Tocharian B, e.g. the vocative case and some of the noun, verb, and adjective declensional classes. In their declensional and conjugational endings, the two languages innovated in divergent ways, with neither clearly simpler than the other. For example, both languages show significant innovations in
7490-585: The manuscripts, but it may be that the surviving documents are unrepresentative. Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian) was found at all the Tocharian A sites and also in several sites further west, including Kuchi (later Kucha). It appears to have still been in use in daily life at that time. Over 3200 manuscripts have been studied in detail. The languages had significant differences in phonology, morphology and vocabulary, making them mutually unintelligible "at least as much as modern Germanic or Romance languages". Tocharian A shows innovations in
7597-481: The most striking typological peculiarities of Tocharian are rooted in a prolonged contact of Proto-Tocharian-speaking Afanasievans with speakers of an early stage of Proto-Samoyedic in South Siberia. Among others, this might explain the merger of all three-stop series (e.g., *t, *d, *dʰ > *t), which must have led to a huge amount of homonyms , as well as the development of an agglutinative case system. Chao Ning et al. (2019) found in burials from around 200 BC at
7704-513: The name "Tocharian" (German Tocharisch ). Ptolemy's Tócharoi are often associated by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan Empire . It is now clear that these people actually spoke Bactrian , an Eastern Iranian language , rather than the language of the Tarim manuscripts, so the term "Tocharian" is considered a misnomer. Nevertheless, it remains
7811-481: The new language. Besides the Buddhist and Manichaean religious texts, there were also monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, medical and magical texts, and one love poem. In 1998, the Chinese linguist Ji Xianlin published a translation and analysis of fragments of a Tocharian Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in 1974 in Yanqi . Tocharian A and B are significantly different, to
7918-715: The north and Chinese empires to the east. These cities, the largest of which was Kucha , also served as way stations on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert . For several centuries, the Tarim basin was ruled by the Xiongnu , the Han dynasty , the Tibetan Empire , and the Tang dynasty . From the 8th century AD, the Uyghurs – speakers of
8025-468: The northeast Tarim area. The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related, Indo-European languages , conventionally known as Tocharian A and Tocharian B. According to glotto-chronological data, Tocharian languages are closest to Western Indo-European languages such as proto-Germanic or proto-Italian, and being devoid of satemization predate the evolution of eastern Indo-European languages. Tocharian A (Agnean or East Tocharian)
8132-568: The northern edge of the basin, these oases occur in small valleys before the gravels. On the southern edge, they occur in alluvial fans on the edge of the sand zone. Isolated alluvial fan oases also occur in the gravel deserts of the Turpan Depression to the east of the Taklamakan. From around 2000 BC, these oases supported Bronze Age settled agricultural communities of steadily increasing sophistication. The necessary irrigation technology
8239-514: The oases of the northern Tarim circa 2000 BC. Some scholars have linked these communities to the Afanasievo culture found earlier (c. 3500–2500 BC) in Siberia, north of the Tarim or Central Asian BMAC culture. The earliest Tarim mummies date from c. 1800 BC, but it is unclear whether they are connected to the Tocharians of two millennia later. By the 2nd century BC, these settlements had developed into city-states , overshadowed by nomadic peoples to
8346-494: The objective. Both Jainism and Buddhism spread throughout India during the period of the Magadha empire. Buddhism flourished during the reign of Ashoka of the Maurya Empire , who patronised Buddhist teachings and unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. He sent missionaries abroad, allowing Buddhism to spread across Asia. Jainism began its golden period during the reign of Emperor Kharavela of Kalinga in
8453-554: The operation of the universe and everything within it. "Satya (truth as being) and rita (truth as law) are the primary principles of Reality and its manifestation is the background of the canons of dharma, or a life of righteousness." "Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute, rita is its application and function as the rule and order operating in the universe." Conformity with Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to punishment. Panikkar remarks: Ṛta
8560-545: The opinion that there exists some link between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabha and Indus Valley civilisation. Marshall hypothesized the existence of a cult of Mother Goddess worship based upon excavation of several female figurines, and thought that this was a precursor of the Hindu sect of Shaktism . However the function of the female figurines in the life of Indus Valley people remains unclear, and Possehl does not regard
8667-409: The original texts. They concluded that Schmidt's decipherment was fundamentally flawed, that there was no reason to associate the texts with Krörän, and that the language they recorded was neither Tocharian nor Indic, but Iranian. Phonetically, Tocharian languages are " centum " Indo-European languages, meaning that they merge the palatovelar consonants (*ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ) of Proto-Indo-European with
8774-406: The orthodoxy of the rituals. The shramanas were wandering ascetics distinct from Vedism. Mahavira, proponent of Jainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483), founder of Buddhism were the most prominent icons of this movement. Shramana gave rise to the concept of the cycle of birth and death, the concept of samsara , and the concept of liberation. The influence of Upanishads on Buddhism has been
8881-443: The phallus ( linga ) and vulva ( yoni ); and, use of baths and water in religious practice. Marshall's interpretations have been much debated, and sometimes disputed over the following decades. One Indus valley seal shows a seated figure with a horned headdress, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as an early form of the Hindu god Shiva (or Rudra ), who is associated with asceticism, yoga , and linga; regarded as
8988-659: The plain velars (*k, *g, *gʰ) rather than palatalizing them to affricates or sibilants. Centum languages are mostly found in western and southern Europe ( Greek , Italic , Celtic , Germanic ). In that sense Tocharian (to some extent like the Greek and the Anatolian languages ) seems to have been an isolate in the " satem " (i.e. palatovelar to sibilant ) phonetic regions of Indo-European-speaking populations. The discovery of Tocharian contributed to doubts that Proto-Indo-European had originally split into western and eastern branches; today,
9095-470: The point of being mutually unintelligible . A common Proto-Tocharian language must precede the attested languages by several centuries, probably dating to the late 1st millennium BC. Tocharian A is found only in the eastern part of the Tocharian-speaking area, and all extant texts are of a religious nature. Tocharian B, however, is found throughout the range and in both religious and secular texts. As
9202-407: The present active indicative endings but in radically different ways, so that only the second-person singular ending is directly cognate between the two languages, and in most cases neither variant is directly cognate with the corresponding Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form. The agglutinative secondary case endings in the two languages likewise stem from different sources, showing parallel development of
9309-451: The related concepts of yoga, saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). The Puranic Period (200 BCE – 500 CE) and Early Medieval period (500–1100 CE) gave rise to new configurations of Hinduism, especially bhakti and Shaivism , Shaktism , Vaishnavism , Smarta , and smaller groups like the conservative Shrauta . The early Islamic period (1100–1500 CE) also gave rise to new movements. Sikhism
9416-670: The royal lineage of Ayodhya. Buddhism emphasises enlightenment (nibbana, nirvana) and liberation from the rounds of rebirth. This objective is pursued through two schools, Theravada, the Way of the Elders (practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, SE Asia, etc.) and Mahayana, the Greater Way (practiced in Tibet, China, Japan, etc.). There may be some differences in the practice between the two schools in reaching
9523-605: The same general location in Western Europe, as did their burial and statuary styles. The Taklamakan Desert is roughly oval in shape, about 1,000 km long and 400 km wide, surrounded on three sides by high mountains. The main part of the desert is sandy, surrounded by a belt of gravel desert. The desert is completely barren, but in the late spring the melting snows of the surrounding mountains feed streams, which have been altered by human activity to create oases with mild microclimates and supporting intensive agriculture. On
9630-573: The secondary case system after the Proto-Tocharian period. Likewise, some of the verb classes show independent origins, e.g. the class II preterite, which uses reduplication in Tocharian A (possibly from the reduplicated aorist ) but long PIE ē in Tocharian B (possibly related to the long-vowel perfect found in Latin lēgī , fēcī , etc.). Tocharian B shows an internal chronological development; three linguistic stages have been detected. The oldest stage
9737-630: The social-economic history which often showed a strong continuity. The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim conquests took place between the eight and the fourteenth centuries, while the south was never completely conquered. According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on "significant social and economic changes", which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers. Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow
9844-509: The source of the term " Tokharistan " usually referring to 1st millennium Bactria , as well as the Takhar province of Afghanistan . The Tókharoi are often identified by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan Empire . Müller's identification became a minority position among scholars when it turned out that the people of Tokharistan ( Bactria ) spoke Bactrian , an Eastern Iranian language , which
9951-514: The standard term for the language of the Tarim Basin manuscripts. In 1938, Walter Bruno Henning found the term "four twγry " used in early 9th-century manuscripts in Sogdian, Middle Iranian, and Uighur. He argued that it referred to the region on the northeast edge of the Tarim, including Agni and Karakhoja , but not Kucha. He thus inferred that the colophon referred to the Agnean language. Although
10058-573: The steppe cultures of the Don-Volga area that later became the Yamnayans . Under this scenario, Tocharian-speakers would have immigrated to the Tarim Basin from the north at some later point. Most scholars reject Walter Bruno Henning 's proposed link to Gutian , a language spoken on the Iranian plateau in the 22nd century BC and known only from personal names. Tocharian probably died out after 840 when
10165-452: The subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms", a process sometimes called Sanskritization . It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts. During the time of the shramanic reform movements "many elements of the Vedic religion were lost". According to Michaels, "it is justified to see a turning point between
10272-525: The ten anthologies Pattuppāṭṭu , the eight anthologies Eṭṭuttokai also sheds light on early religion of ancient Dravidians. Seyon was glorified as the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent, as the favored god of the Tamils. Sivan was also seen as the supreme God. Early iconography of Seyyon and Sivan and their association with native flora and fauna goes back to Indus Valley Civilization. The Sangam landscape
10379-469: The term twγry or toxrï appears to be the Old Turkic name for the Tocharians, it is not found in Tocharian texts. The apparent self-designation ārśi appears in Tocharian A texts. Tocharian B texts use the adjective kuśiññe , derived from kuśi or kuči , a name also known from Chinese and Turkic documents. The historian Bernard Sergent compounded these names to coin an alternative term Arśi-Kuči for
10486-432: The vowels and nominal inflection, whereas Tocharian B has changes in the consonants and verbal inflection. Many of the differences in vocabulary between the languages concern Buddhist concepts, which may suggest that they were associated with different Buddhist traditions. The differences indicate that they diverged from a common ancestor between 500 and 1000 years before the earliest documents, that is, sometime in
10593-463: Was called an "awakened one" ( Buddha ), was born into the Shakya clan living at Kapilavastu and Lumbini in what is now southern Nepal. The Buddha was born at Lumbini, as emperor Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar records, just before the kingdom of Magadha (which traditionally is said to have lasted from c. 546–324 BCE) rose to power. The Shakyas claimed Angirasa and Gautama Maharishi lineage, via descent from
10700-685: Was classified into five categories, thinais , based on the mood, the season and the land. Tolkappiyam, mentions that each of these thinai had an associated deity such Seyyon in Kurinji -the hills, Thirumaal in Mullai -the forests, and Kotravai in Marutham -the plains, and Wanji-ko in the Neithal -the coasts and the seas. Other gods mentioned were Mayyon and Vaali who were all assimilated into Hinduism over time. Dravidian linguistic influence on early Vedic religion
10807-521: Was established by a lineage of 24 enlightened beings culminating with Parshvanatha (9th century BCE) and Mahavira (6th century BCE). The 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Mahavira, stressed five vows, including ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), and aparigraha (non-attachment). As per Jain tradition, the teachings of the Tirthankaras predates all known time. The scholars believe Parshva , accorded status as
10914-561: Was first developed during the 3rd millennium BC in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) to the west of the Pamir mountains , but it is unclear how it reached the Tarim. The staple crops, wheat and barley, also originated in the west. Indian religions Indian religions as a percentage of world population Indian religions , sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions , are
11021-410: Was found in the northeastern oases known to the Tocharians as Ārśi , later Agni (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) and Turpan (including Khocho or Qočo; known in Chinese as Gaochang). Some 500 manuscripts have been studied in detail, mostly coming from Buddhist monasteries. Many authors take this to imply that Tocharian A had become a purely literary and liturgical language by the time of
11128-571: Was founded in the 15th century on the teachings of Guru Nanak and the nine successive Sikh Gurus in Northern India . The vast majority of its adherents originate in the Punjab region . During the period of British rule in India , a reinterpretation and synthesis of Hinduism arose, which aided the Indian independence movement . Scottish historian James Mill , in his seminal work The History of British India (1817), distinguished three phases in
11235-574: Was more actively spoken in the entire area from Turfan in the east to Tumshuq in the west. A body of loanwords and names found in Prakrit documents from the Lop Nur basin have been dubbed Tocharian C ( Kroränian ). A claimed find of ten Tocharian C texts written in Kharosthi has been discredited. The oldest extant manuscripts in Tocharian B are now dated to the fifth or even late fourth century AD, making it
11342-490: Was not a protector of wild animals. Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel also rejected Marshall's conclusions, with the former claiming that the figure was female, while the latter associated the figure with Mahisha , the Buffalo God and the surrounding animals with vahanas (vehicles) of deities for the four cardinal directions. Writing in 2002, Gregory L. Possehl concluded that while it would be appropriate to recognise
11449-566: Was written in the Tocharian alphabet , a derivative of the Brahmi alphabetic syllabary ( abugida ) also referred to as North Turkestan Brahmi or slanting Brahmi. However a smaller amount was written in the Manichaean script in which Manichaean texts were recorded. It soon became apparent that a large proportion of the manuscripts were translations of known Buddhist works in Sanskrit and some of them were even bilingual, facilitating decipherment of
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