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- India is not a space but a concept that needs to be understood.
- All through history, India has always been
divided into a number of principalities.
- Region is defined as divisions on the
basis of linguistics, boundaries, cultural markers etc., but these are not
enough to understand a region comprehensively.
- Historically, if we see, we got to know that regions are born and die.
- Humans of different civilizations all over
the world believe that their respective situated locations are the centre of
the universe. It is believed that direct rays of the sun fall on those areas
where they are situated and slanting rays fall on barbarians’ lands.
- Out of Brahmavarta, Brahmarshidesa,
Aryavarta, and Madhyadesa- Madhyadesa is the ideal area and the purest of pure;
where there is a pure and chesed language spoken and pronounced correctly, this
is the area where the best rituals are performed and social practices are based
on good conduct.
- In the social universe, Brahma Vivaha is
considered as the best form of marriage where the two counterparts i.e., patriarch
householders take decisions regarding marriages and women had no role
or agency in such marriages.
- In social spaces, there were different
ways of calling, greeting, begging and dressing which were performed
differently according to the people belonging to different Varnas. The names of the dalit characters like Ghisu, Dukhia, Gobar etc., in Premchand's novels and short stories may give you more insights. Even the popular Bollywood film Lagaan names its Dalit character Kacharā. That such names were not fictional inventions is proved by the fact that Tulasi Ram, a Dalit writer, mentions the names of his grandparents as Jooṭhan and Musariya in his autobiography.
- In social living spaces, people belonging
to the lowest strata lived at the corners of the areas and nowadays this can be
seen with the Dalits’ settlements who live in the southern direction of the
specified areas because it is believed that God Yama lives in the south who got
first encounter with these people.
- The idea of Madhyadesa was not limited to
its specified boundaries, with time it spread into other areas also. Some ideas
of the same can be seen in prisons as well where prisoners follow some rules,
norms and regulations imbibed in their minds whose sources can be traced back
to the Dharmashastras.
This lecture titled "Madhyadesa: The Past and Present" is a part of the series on 'Nationalism, Communalism and the Instrumental Employment of the Distortion of History' was conducted by Red October Study Circle, JNU on 05-10-2024.
P. K. Basant retired as a professor in the Department of History and Culture at the Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His book The Country and the City in Early India: A Study of Malwa won the Indian History Congress’s award for the best book on ancient Indian history between 2012 and 2014.
Notes:
2. The image used in this blog is taken from the Instagram account of Prakash Chander (PhD, CHS JNU)
